Haryana beat defending champions Punjab Royals to lift PWL 4 title
Greater Noida: Haryana Hammers won the fourth edition of the Pro Wrestling League (PWL) as they outclassed Punjab Royals 6-3 in the summit clash at the Gautam Buddha University indoor stadium here on Thursday.
Riding on Aleksander Khotsianivski, Ali Shabanov, Kiran, Ravi Kumar and Anastasia Nichita’s dominating performance, the runners-up in the last three editions, Haryana Hammers, turned the tables on the defending champions Punjab Royals winning all the first five bouts of the evening to clinch the title.
So dominating was Haryana’s performance that Punjab’s campaign ended even before their star player Bajrang Punia could take the stage. The Asian Games gold medallist and Padma Shri Bajrang scored an impressive 11-0 win over Rajneesh but it was too little too late in the day.
It was Aleksander Khotsianivski of Ukraine, who put Haryana on the road to victory winning the 125 kg super heavyweight bout against Canadian Korey Jarvis 3-0. Ali Shabanov got his revenge and also broke Dato Marsagishvili’s unbeaten run to win the men’s 86 kg bout 4-3 and give Haryana an early 2-0 lead.
The 2018 CWG bronze medallist Kiran made it 3-0 for Haryana Hammers defeating the 2018 European Championships bronze medallist France’s Cynthia Vescan 3-1 in the women’s 76 kg category. After that, the 2018 World Under-23 Championship silver medallist Ravi Kumar put Haryana 4-0 ahead in the tie after his comprehensive 8-0 win over Nitin Rathi.
Later, World junior champion Nichita Anastasia defeated the 2018 European Championships runners-up Mimi Hristova to make it 5-0 for the runners-up.
In the remaining bouts, Punjab’s Amit Dhanker won the 74 kg contest against Praveen Rana 5-2, Anju added one more win to Punjab’s tally defeating Seema 10-5 in the 53 kg category while Haryana’s Tatyana Omelchenko won the women’s 62 kg category bout against Seema 9-0 to complete Haryana’s winning tally.