Greco Roman Nationals: Services wrestlers dominate Day 1

New Delhi, Feb 20 (IANS) The Service Sports Control Board (SSCB) wrestling team dominated the opening day of the two-day National Greco Roman Championship, being held in Jalandhar, on Saturday. The Services squad pocketed two gold, three silver, and an equal number of bronze medals while their arch rivals Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) managed only four medals, including one gold and one silver.In an all-Services final in the 55kg, Asian bronze medallist Arjun Halakurki beat Vijay to win gold. Arshad of Uttar Pradesh and Shrikant of Haryana clinched bronze medals. SSCB earned their second gold of the day through Naveen, who outplayed Delhi's Ravi Kumar to win the 130kg title. Som of SSCB and Aawesh of Haryana got bronze medals.Manish Kumar won RSPB's first gold when he defeated Sunny Jadhav of Madhya Pradesh in 60kg. For the home team, Harpreet Singh got the first gold when he defeated Sanjeet of SSCB in the 82kg final. Atul of RSPB and Rohit Dahiya of Haryana won the bronze medals.The competition in the remaining five bouts -- 63kg, 72kg, 77kg, 87kg, 97kg -- will be held on Sunday.After the Covid-enforced lockdown the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has started domestic competitions, but they are being organised at different places. The men's freestyle was organised in January in NOIDA while Agra was the venue for women's freestyle competition. The top four finishers in each of the weight categories will be selected for the national preparatory camp, starting from next week at Sports Authority of India (SAI) training centre in Sonepat. Results55kg: Arjun Halakurki (SSCB), Vijay (SSCB), Arshad (Uttar Pradesh), Shrikant (Haryana)60kg: Manish (RSPB), Sunny Jadhav (Madhya Pradesh), Gyanendra (SSCB), Sachin Rana (RSPB).67kg: Gaurav (UP), Surajmal (SSCB), Sachin (SSCB), Deepak (RSPB).82kg: Harpreet Singh (Punjab),Sanjeet (SSCB), Atul (RSPB), Rohit Dahiya (Haryana).130kg: Naveen (SSCB), Ravi (Delhi), Som (SSCB), Aawesh (Haryana).
--IANS nns/qma