India end SAG campaign in wrestling with 14 gold medals

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Kathmandu: Indian wrestler Anita Sheoran poses with her gold medal at 13th South Asian Games in Kathmandu, on Dec 9, 2019.

Kathmandu,  Gaurav Baliyan and Anita Sheoran registered comfortable victories to bag gold as India completed a perfect record on the final day of the wrestling competition at the 13th South Asian Games here on Monday.

With both Baliyan (men’s 74kg) and Sheoran (women’s 68kg) claiming gold in their respective events, India achieved a unique feat with its grapplers finishing at the top of the podium in all 14 categories — seven gold each in men’s and women’s events. As per the rule, a country can participate in maximum 14 categories out of the usual 20 weight classes.

It was a task for both Baliyan and Sheoran in their respective finals as they hardly saw any challenge from their opponents. While Sheoran, making a comeback to international circuit after 2016, took only 48 seconds to pin down her Sri Lankan opponent, young Baliyan showed great skills during his one-sided wins over opponents from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Earlier on Sunday, Sakshi Malik (62Kg), Ravinder (61kg), Anshu (59kg) and Pawan Kumar (86kg) had won gold for India.