MTNL (Delhi) win team championship

NEW DELHI, MARCH 14: Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (Delhi region) made it six in a row to emerge the champions in the All-India Telecom Wrest...

NEW DELHI, MARCH 14: Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (Delhi region) made it six in a row to emerge the champions in the All-India Telecom Wrestling Championships at the Talkatora Indoor Stadium here today. Karnataka region came second. The Delhi region of MTNL claimed six of the eight gold medals at stake today while adding a silver and a bronze to their tally.

Most of Delhi region’s gold came in the higher weight categories besides a gold and silver each in the 54kg and 63kg classes respectively. Sunil Kumar, Kamlesh, Surinder Singh, Rajesh Kumar, Shyam Sunder and Ashok Kumar were the gold winners while Madan Lal took the silver and Bijinder Kumar the bronze.

In the 54kg class, Ashok Kumar downed Gopal Adke of Maharashtra on points to win the gold while Shyam Sunder downed Y.L. Pathak of Gujarat for the first position.

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In 76 kg category, Rajesh Kumar had the better of V.B. Dalvi of Karnataka to take the gold and Surinder in 85 kg defeated G. Rajappa, also of Karnataka, to finish first. Kamlesh took the 97 kg gold beating H.R. Dhananjaya of Karantaka while Sunil KUmar downed Bansi Lal of Jammu and Kashmir for the gold.

The Karnataka grapplers did reasonably well but were proved handful against a strong Delhi region wrestlers, whose technique and stamina came in handy against the Karantaka wrestlerrs.

Surprisingly, the matmen from other northern region centres failed to excel except the odd wins in some bouts. UP and Bihar, particularly, had pitted wrestlers whose calibre failed to match with those of Delhi and Karnataka. Even Maharashtra matmen shone only in patches.

Results (all finals): 54 Kg: 1. Ashok Kumar (MTNL Delhi), 2. Gopal Adke (Mah), 3. Babu Lal Jat (Raj). 58 Kg: 1. G. M. Naik (Kar), 2. Krishan Murari Lal (UP), 3. Bijinder Kumar (MTNL). 63 Kg: 1. Sh. Ashok Kumar (Pun), 2. Sh. Madan lal (MTNL), 3. Sh. Manu Ram (UP). 69 Kg: 1. Shyam Sunder (MTNL), 2. Y. L. Pathak (Guj), 3. A. G. Manturgi (Kar). 76 Kg: 1. Rajesh Kumar (MTNL-Delhi), 2. V. B. Dalvi (Kar), 3. Rhtas (Pun). 85 Kg: 1. Surinder Singh (MTNL-Delhi), 2. G. Rajappa (Kar), 3. D. D. Pandey (U.P.). 97 Kg: 1. Kamlesh (MTNL Delhi), 2. H. R. Dhananjaya (Kar), 3. Yogesh Tomer (Pun). +97 Kg: 1. Sunil Kumar, (MTNL Delhi), 2. Bansi Lal (J&K), 3. Srikant Parsad Singh (Bihar). Team Championship: 1. MTNL Delhi – (77 points), 2. Karnataka – (58 points).