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Sushil Kumar targets CWG now

Last Updated 13 September 2010, 17:07 IST

Sushil on Sunday defeated local favourite Alan Gogaev 3-1 in the final to clinch the title in Moscow, an achievement for which India had to wait for 59 years. The 3-1 win in the final also made the 27-year-old the first Indian grappler to bag Olympic and World Championship medals. Sushil, who won the bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics, also holds Asian and Commonwealth titles.The World champion is now determined to win a gold at next months Commonwealth Games. Winning gold at World Championships is a huge achievement. My next target is to win gold medal in the Commonwealth Games, the Haryana grappler said.I feel really fortunate to become the first ever Indian wrestler to win a gold at the World Championship. I thank everyone for all their support and blessings.Sushils gold comes after Ramesh Kumar broke Indias medal drought in the World Championship by winning the bronze in the 74-kg category last year. Uday Chand (bronze, 1961), Bishambhar Singh (silver, 1967) and female wrestler Alka Tomar (bronze, 2006) are the other World Championship medallists from India.Sushil predicted India will dominate the October sporting extravaganza. I firmly believe that Indians can win all the 21 medals in as many categories. I also feel that we can win at least 13-14 gold medals because weve hd good practice, he said.Talking about his win, he said, It was tough because gold, silver and bronze medallists of 2008 Beijing Olympics were in the fray. But my toughest bout was the semifinal against Azerbaijan opponent who recently won the European Champion after beating Olympic gold and silver medallists. I had to face the home favourite from Russia in the final and that was also tough, he added.After getting a bye in the first round, Sushil defeated Akritidis of Greece, Martin Sebastian of Germany and Buyan Jav of Mongolia en route to the summit clash. Sushils historic triumph has also brought some cheer to Indian wrestling at a time when six wrestlers tested positive for banned drugs. This is a big relief for us. In the last few years the federation has worked hard to clean the sport, but suddenly the drug test of six wrestlers got us lot of negative publicity. Sushils gold medal is a welcome change for us, said Wrestling Federation of India president GS Mander.

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(Published 13 September 2010, 17:07 IST)

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