Pooja Dhanda Settles for Silver Medal in Women's Freestyle 57 kg Wrestling Event at CWG 2018

Pooja Dhanda is the sixth Indian wrestler to bag medal in Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games. The 24-year-old Haryana girl settled for silver medal after losing in the Women's Freestyle 57 kg finals to Odunayo Adekuoroye of Nigeria on day ten of CWG 2018. Her medal comes moments after Bajrang Punia won the gold medal in Men's Freestyle 65 kg Wrestling Event. India’s medal tally in Commonwealth Games 2018 is 37 including 17 gold, 9 silver and 11 bronze as they maintain their third-place rankings in the medal table behind Australia and England.

After Indian shooters and weightlifters, it is wrestlers who are shining for the nation at GC 2018. Pooja Dhanda had a golden opportunity to add gold medal in wrestling kitty, but she began getting tired in the crucial juncture to let her Nigerian opponent get away with the top prize. The Indian wrestler lost the match based on Victory by Points - with points scored by the opponent (Odunayo Adekuoroye 7 – 5 Pooja Dhanda).

This is second silver for Indian female wrestlers after Babita Kumar Phogat also had to be content with a silver medal losing her match to Diana Weicker of Canada in Women's Freestyle 53 kg Nordic System Match. The third medal won by Indian woman in wrestling is Kiran who won bronze medal beating Katouskia Pariadhaven of Mauritius in Women's Freestyle 76 kg match.

Meanwhile, Indian male wrestlers are having a blast with three top podium finishes. It began with Rahul Aware winning the gold medal in Men's Freestyle 57 kg followed by Sushil Kumar in Men's Freestyle 74 kg on day nine of Commonwealth Games 2018 and Bajrang Punia on day ten.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 13, 2018 02:09 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).