Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 5 (IANS) After a rousing start, the Indian wrestling team is confident of winning 21 medals, a large number of them gold.

On the opening day of the competition, the Indians made a clean sweep of all the three gold medals at stake in the Greco-Roman category, which made its debut at the Games.

Anil Kumar (96 kg), Sanjay (74 kg) and Ravinder Singh (60 kg) scored fabulous victories before a sizeable number of cheering fans at the Indira Gandhi Stadium.

India’s chief coach Hargobind Singh said his charges are an improved lot.

“We have trained hard for the last couple of years. Sushil Kumar’s Olympic bronze medal has increased the popularity of the sport. We are going to reap a long haul here,” Hargobind told IANS.

Ravinder said they could not have expected a better start with the crowd firmly behind their back.

“We will be winning 21 medals for sure,” said Ravinder, who won the first Greco-Roman gold at the Commonwealth Games,” he said.

“There was great support for me and it kept me going. In the final, I tried to be aggressive from the beginning and grew in confidence as the bout progressed,” said Ravinder.

Wrestling Federation of India president Mander Singh said the country is proud of its wrestlers.

“I have full faith on them and today they have done the country proud. We are definitely going to make a major contribution to the country’s medal tally,” he said.

Mander said the Greco-Roman category is fast catching up with the young wrestlers.

“Freestyle is the more popular category. It is fast. But Greco-Roman is also an ancient form of wrestling and now our boys are doing good in it. Earlier, those who could not made the cut in freestyle would join Greco-Roman, but now youngsters are coming up to take it up.”

“I can tell you that the stands will be full here as the competition progresses and when the freestyle events take place.”