Rome: India's Greco Roman wrestler, Suraj Vashisht, created history at the U17 World Championships by clinching the gold in 55kg weight category.
Suraj defeated European champion Faraim Mustafayev of Azerbaijab by technical superiority (11-0) on Tuesday night, to add historic moment in India's wrestling. His gold was India's first since Pappu Yadav won one back in 1990.
Overall, this was India's only third gold at the U17 Worlds and fourth at all World Championships combined. Apart from Yadav, who also won the 1992 U20 World Championships, Vinod Kumar won the U17 Worlds title in 1980.
"That was my first tour. I had little experience of grips and stances. There was a camp in which I learned all this. Minor changes to help me avoid getting countered," United World Wrestling quoted Suraj as saying.
In the final, the 16-year-old dominated Mustafayev with two four-point throws. An aggressive Suraj tried finding an opening against Mustafayev which made the referee call the Azerbaijan wrestler passive in the first period. Suraj failed to get a turn from par terre and led 1-0.
In the second period, he first avoided being passive and then struck a takedown to extend his lead to 3-0. But he still ran the danger of being called passive with more than a minute left. But, knowing he had to get to a safe zone, used an underhook to throw and collect four points and lead 7-0. Mustafayev tried a flying move but Suraj throw him on the mat with control to win the bout and gold 11-0.
Ronit Sharma, however, got silver after losing the gold medal bout to Ali Ahmadi Vafa of Iran. He could have been the history maker but the Iranian denied him history with a 3-3 win in the 48kg final.
The two had met earlier at the U17 Asian Championships on two occasions with Ahmadi Vafa winning the group stage bout and Sharma winning the final. (UNI)
