Vinesh, Sumit claim gold; Sakshi settles for bronze on last day of CWG wrestling

There was no stopping the gold rush in wrestling as two more were added to the tally by Vinesh Phogat (50kg) and Sumit (125kg) but Olympic bronze-medallist Sakshi Malik (62kg) had to be content with a third-place finish in the Commonwealth Games here today.

Adding another bronze to the count was Somveer, in the 86kg category. India signed off their wrestling campaign at the Games with five gold, three silver and four bronze medals.

The overall count was one less than the medals achieved in the 2014 edition of the Games but India kept their gold medal count at five, the number they achieved the last time.

The weight categories of both Sakshi and Vinesh were competed on a round-robin format as the number of competitors in the draw were less than six.

Sakshi went out of the gold medal contention in the first round itself after losses to Canada's Michelle Fazzari and Nigeria's Aminat Adeniyi following a win over Cameroon's Berthe Ngolle.

But she gathered herself after the setback to defeat New Zealand's Tayla Ford 6-5 in a close bout to avoid going without a medal. The heartbreak of missing the gold left her in tears during the medal ceremony.

"I am so disappointed, I should have won a gold medal and I have to settle for a bronze. It will be another four years before I can make this right. I could not get what I expected of myself," she told PTI, wiping away her tears.

"I had a bad second bout because I thought I was winning till the last few seconds but then I lost and it destroyed my composure, I could never recover from that," she said referring to her defeat at the hands of Canadian Michelle Fazzari. The final scoreline read 8-11.

Asked what's next for her in the calendar, Sakshi said, "Next for me is the Asian Games and I will prepare hard for it."