Haryana win 14 gold medals in wrestling

Ranchi, Feb 25 (PTI) Haryana grapplers finished on top inthe three-day wrestling competition as they added another fivegold medals on the final day here today to take their tally to14 yellow metals in the 34th National Games.

Haryana, which had won five gold medals yesterday andfour on Wednesday, picked up the first of their five goldmedals on the third and final day of the competition whenKumar overpowered SSCB''s Pankaj Rana in the final of themen''s 66kg weight freestyle category.

Manoj Kumar of Uttar Pradesh and Ranjeet Nalawade ofMaharashtra returned with bronze medals as losingsemifinalists.

Vinod added the second gold medal of the day for Haryanadefeating Delhi''s Sukhvinder in a closely-fought bout in themen''s 55kg freestyle competition.

The SSCB''s Narendra and UP''s Subash settled for thebronze medals in this category.

Haryana bagged the third gold medal of the day whenNirmla won the women''s 48kg freestyle final against Delhi''sSumel. MP''s Rekha and Chandigarh''s Kanta had to be satisfiedwith bronze medals.

In the 55kg men''s Greco Roman style competition,Haryana''s Rajendra Kumar won the gold by defeating Delhi''sManjeet, while Punjab''s Hari Krishan and SSCB''s K L Yadavsecured the bronze medals.

In the men''s 120kg Greco-Roman style, Dharmendra ofHaryana got the better of Jharkhand''s Rishi Pal to win thegold medal while Maharashtra''s Dnyaneshwar Gochde and SSCB''sDevendra won the bronze medals.

Haryana''s Naveen Kumar, however, lost the men''s 120kgfree style final to Rohit Patil of Madhya Pradesh to settlefor a silver. While SSCB''s Chander Pal and Fira Nagar of Delhibagged the bronze.

SSCB''s Suresh Kumar emerged victorious in the 66kg GrecoRoman freestyle wrestling final, overwhelming Punjab''sHarmendra to win gold.

Delhi''s Sombir and host Jharkhand''s Rajan Kumar securedthe bronze each.