Indian men, Canadian women dominate in Commonwealth wrestling finals

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Rusty Davidson (Commonwealth Amateur Wrestling Association)
07/08/2003


London, Ontario - Two training partners battled for gold at the 2003 Commonwealth Wrestling Championships and it was settled by a whisker. University of Calgary Dinosaur wrestler Andrea Ross of London battled Terri McNutt, who is a Western Mustang, for the championship of the Women's 55 kg weight class.     It was a tight match, with Ross building up a 5-0 lead, until McNutt found her opportunity in the second round. McNutt scored four unanswered points on Ross then moved to a pin position with one and a half minutes remaining. McNutt came close, but the officials never signaled a pin and Ross survived, exhausting all of the remaining time. Even though McNutt was on top of Ross at the end, Ross prevailed 5-4.     The Canadian Women really put on a display winning six of seven gold medals. The only silver was Tara Hedican of Guelph, who is the 2003 Pan Am champion and 2001 Junior World champion. Hedican lost to Geetika Jakhar of India, who is the silver medalist from the Asian Wrestling Championships. A key decision by the officials with 12 seconds left, not to award Hedican two points, would have tied the match and may have altered the outcome, and ultimately prevented the Canadian women from sweeping all seven golds.     In the Men's division, India showed their superiority winning all of the seven available gold medals, but they also took four silver medals. The only weight classes where they didn't get the silver, as well as the gold, was where they didn't enter a second wrestler in the weight class. Clearly, the Indian Men dominated the division.     Leading the charge was Palwinder Singh Cheema, who won the 120 kg class in impressive style. While Cheema didn't have many matches, his two wins were dominant. In the gold medal bout, he shot in for double leg takedowns with the speed of a much smaller man. He needed less than two minutes to dispose of his opponent Colin Miller of Hamilton, winning by superiority with a score of 11-1.     Another impressive Indian was Bhagat Singh, who beat Mike Neufeld in the finals. He clearly showed why he was the gold medalist in the World Police Games.     The one disappointment of the afternoon was in the 60 kg class, where Sushil Kumar was facing off against Krishan Kumar in an eagerly awaited final. Krishan, who was dominant in the preliminaries, was injured and unable to compete.     Many of the competitors in the 2003 Commonwealth Wrestling Championships will travel up the 401 to Guelph for next week's Canada Cup of Wrestling.     The Championship bouts will be telecast by Rogers Cable TV, across Ontario, on Sunday July 13, 2003 at 2 pm and rebroadcast on Saturday July 19, 2003 at 8 pm.     The 2003 Commonwealth Wrestling Championships features men and women Olympic Freestyle wrestlers, representing 7 countries, on July 5 and 6, 2003 at the Western Fair Sports Centre. These Championships are sanctioned by the Commonwealth Amateur Wrestling Association and hosted by the London Western Wrestling Club.     For more information, visit the tournament's web site at http://groups.msn.com/CommonwealthWrestling.