Milestone of India - Commonwealth Game - Amazing display by Alka and Anita.

INTENSE STRUGGLE:India's Alka Tomar (red) had the measure of two-time Olympic Games medallist Tonya Verbeek of Canada in the final of the 59kg freestyle wrestling bout on Friday.

NEW DELHI: Alka Tomar and Anita gave the performances of their life to clinch a gold medal each in the women's wrestling at the Commonwealth Games here on Friday.

Alka, a World championship bronze medallist in 2006, lived up to her reputation against two-time Olympic medallist Tonya Verbeek of Canada in the 59kg title clash.

Anita upset another Canadian and Commonwealth champion, Megan Buydens, for the 67kg title at the K.D. Jadhav wrestling stadium in the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex.

The other Indian in the fray, Babita Kumari went down to Nigerian Ifeoma Nwoye to settle for the 51kg silver.

India has thus collected three golds, two silvers and a bronze from women's wrestling.

Easy ride

Alka, the current Asian championship bronze winner, had a relatively easy ride to the title clash. Following a first round bye, she exhibited her authority in taming Louisa Salmon of England ‘by fall.'

In the clash for the gold, a well-prepared Alka grabbed the first point by pushing Tonya out of the red zone.

Presence of mind

The 26-year-old home wrestler exhibited her presence of mind to pounce on a chance and force herself on the Canadian to win ‘by fall' in less than two minutes.

“This was the best fight of my life. I was prepared for this kind of challenge since I knew that the Canadian wrestlers would pose problems for us.

“I was very confident even after knowing that I would have to overcome an Olympic medallist,” said Alka.

“This was all because of the hard work of two years,” she said as the near-capacity house celebrated Alka's success.

Biggest achievement

For Anita, the 67kg gold medal was the biggest achievement of her career. Following her first round bye and a convincing win over Scotland's Ashlea McManus (1-0, 2-0), the Indian stuck to her plan.

The circumspect Anita played a waiting game and banked on her footwork to attack the retreating Canadian.

After ensuring that the first round went in her favour with a 1-0 margin, Anita, an Asian championship bronze winner in 2008, gathered three more points in the next.
A desperate Megan, who had beaten Nigerian World championship medallist Ifeoma Iheanacho in the first round, could not match Anita's firepower.

“I followed our coach's advice and it helped me a lot. This is undoubtedly the best moment of my life,” said Anita, a 25-year-old head constable with Haryana Police.