Pak wrestlers? CW campaign begins today

Our correspondentGOLD COAST: After Pakistani weightlifters won two bronze medals for the country, it is now the turn of the most hopeful brigade of the national wrestlers who will begin their 21st Commonwealth Games journey here at the Carrara Stadium wrestling facility on Thursday (today).Wrestling has always been a strong point of Pakistan in the history of the Commonwealth Games whose standard in the sport is not that high. Pakistan’s six member wrestling squad is capable to add to the prestige of the country which has badly failed so far in the 71-nation spectacle having only two bronze in the pocket. All the members of the national team have won medals in the last year’s Commonwealth Wrestling Championships in Johannesburg, South Africa.On Thursday (today) two national grapplers will try to achieve their goals. In the 57 kilogramme pre-quarter-finals Mohammad Bilal will face Gary Giordmaina of Malta and Mohammad Asad Butt will be pitted against Oleg Gladkov of Scotland. On Friday (tomorrow) Abdul Wahab will compete in the 62kg pre-quarter-finals against Adam Vella of Malta while Umair Ahmed’s opponent in the 97kg is yet to be known. On April 14, which will be the last day of the wrestling event, Pakistan’s gold medal hope and former Commonwealth Games gold medalist Mohammad Inam will face Australia’s Jayden Lawrence in the 86 kilogramme category pre-quarter-finals. There are 13 entries in this class. On the same day the super heavyweight fighter Tayyab Raza will compete in the 125kg competitions which have only five entries. Because of the less number of entries the competitions of this weight will be held under a single league system. Tayyab will fight against Sinivie Bolton of Nigeria in his opener, followed by bouts against Claude Keuamen MBianga of Cameroon, Sumit of India and Canada’s Korey Jarvis. Wrestling was the only after hockey which got some exposure ahead of the Commonwealth Games.

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