Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2010 Medal Tally : Sushil Kumar wins 28th gold for India

World champion and Olympic bronze medalist Sushil Kumar has added one more feather in the cap of 19th Commonwealth Games host India. Sushil Kumar has beaten Heinrich Barnes of South Africa to win the 66kg freestyle wrestling final at the Commonwealth Games on Sunday.

India has won total of 4 gold medals today which makes the total of 28 Gold Medals and secures the 2nd position in the medal tally. Before Sushil Kumar today, Deepika Kumari in Women's Recurve Individual event, Harpreet Singh in Individual 25m centre fire pistol & Rahul Banerjee in Men's Re-curve Individual event won gold medals for India.

Indian wrestlers, especially the women, have performed splendidly at the Commonwealth Games. As women’s wrestling made its debut at the Commonwealth Games, not many expected them to do as brilliantly as they did.

Three gold, two silver and a bronze by our women is an amazing haul and shows what our girls can do, given proper training and motivation. The men’s freestyle event has started and the medal hopefuls are once again decimating the opposition.

Yogeshwar Dutt (60kg) and Narsingh Yadav (74 kg) grabbed gold with varying performances. Yogeshwar simply outclassed his Canadian opponent James Mancini. I am confident that given his current form, he will surely bring a medal in the Asian Games. Narsingh, on the other hand, had a tough match against South Africa’s Richard Addinall. Once Narsingh took the lead, he went into a shell and concentrated more on defence.

He should improve on his speed and be wary of lowering his guard. All eyes will now be on Sushil Kumar in the 66kg freestyle event on Sunday. There is a mountain of expectations on his shoulders and performing in front of a home crowd at such a major event will put added pressure on Sushil. I hope that he doesn’t get overawed by the expectations. Even though he is a proven champion, playing at home will test his mettle.

I seriously hope we have not placed too much pressure on Sushil. In all, I am expecting one gold from either Sushil or Anuj Kumar (84kg). Joginder (120 kg), a replacement of Rajiv Tomar who tested positive for a banned substance, might not go the distance. The girls, on the other hand, have done exceedingly well and have stuck to their task. They have made good use of traditional Indian wrestling moves and gathered the medals by both hands.

Nirmala (48 kg) did well in her final but lost points in the last stages. She had to settle for silver as she lost concentration. Geeta, on the other hand, was brilliant in her 55 kg final. Though the competition is not very tough in the Commonwealth Games and you reach the semi-finals fairly quickly, the last two matches have been tough and Geeta proved her worth.

Suman Kundu held her own to win bronze in the 63 kg match against South African Zumicke Geringer. If one were to analyse the techniques of the Indians, they used a lot of ‘safe’ desi moves like ghissa to grab points here and there.

Babita (51 kg), Geeta’s sister had a tough opponent in Nigeria’s Christi Nwoye in the final. She tried a kheech dav but was warned. She put an extra effort in the last 30 seconds but it wasn’t enough.

Anita (67 kg) and Alka Tomar (59 kg) were clinical in their wins. Looking at the Aisan Games, I am confident that players like Alka will do well, but the competition will be very tough with countries like Korea and Japan. During these Games, the one thing that I have noted is the emergence of Nigerians. In a few years, they have caught up with countries like Canada and India. By the next few years, they surely will be a force to reckon with.