Wrestlers made their presence felt at Doha

Undated (UNI) It wasn't quite a phoneix like resurrection for the ancient sport but 2006 did witness wrestling's comeback, albeit a silent one, into the public consciousness after their better-than-expected show at the Doha Asian Games towards the end of the year.

In a year in which the wrestlers grappled with inactivity and boredom they made most of the opportunities that came by, and there weren't many.

The Indian wrestlers were dealt a body blow when the sport failed to make the cut in the list of disciplines at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games.

While their compatriots in hogged the limelight as India won medals galore Down Under, the wrestlers cooled their heels back home. On a stage, where competition was limited, India did lose out on a few medals.

If wrestlers lose out on a few medals in the CWG, they missed certain Golds in the South Asian Games later in the September and India decided not to participate in the event.

If at all, the disappointments made them even more determined and the wrestlers summoned all their will to prove a point at the Asian Games.

Spearheaded by women, Geetika Jakhar and Alka Tomar, the wrestlers won a silver and five bronze -- their best show in recent editions of the game.

The 21-year-old Geetika was outstanding and made it to the final of the women's freestyle 63kg category where she lost to Japan's Kaori Icho. Alka had her moment of glory as she took home the bronze by defeating her Chinese rival.

Vinayak Dalvi (55kg Greco-Roman), Palwinder Singh Cheema (120 kg Freestyle), Sushil Kumar, (66kg, Freestyle) also won bronze medals.

Yogeshwar Dutt overcame a personal loss of his father's death to win another bronze for his country.

Off the mat, there was a flurry of activities with voices of dissent against the Wrestling Federation of India president M S Malik. Factionalism was on rise which did anything but good for the uplift of the sport.

UNI DH AY DS1332