2010 in New

The in New Delhi, will be held from October 3-14. is on the Games Program and this will be the first time that all three ( 3 ) Olympic Wrestling styles will be contested at Commonwealth Games ( Men's Greco-Roman style, Women's and Men's Freestyle ).The Wrestling competition will be held at the newly built Wrestling facility at the Indira Ghandi Sports Complex called - K. D. YADHAV Wrestling Stadium ( 7000 seating ). The new facility was named after the legendary Indian wrestler - Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav - who won a bronze medal at the 1952 in Helsinki ( 52kg - Freestyle Wrestling ).The Wrestling portion of the GAMES will start with Greco-Roman wrestling style for Men on October 5-6,the Freestyle wrestling for Women will be held on October 7- 8 and the Freestyle wrestling for Men will be held on October 9-10. In terms of participation at these Games, there are 23 - wrestling nations of the Commonwealth that have entered some - 200 wrestling competitors in three Olympic wrestling styles. The Freestyle wrestling has been part of the Commonwealth Games since 1930 and this is the first time that the Women's Freestyle wrestling and the Men's Greco-Roman wrestling has been added to the Commonwealth Games Program. The Senior Commonwealth Wrestling Championships which are conducted on bi-annual basis ( since 1985) by the COMMONWEALTH AMATEUR WRESTLING ASSOCIATION and FILA's support has had the Women's Freestyle wrestling included since 1993 Commonwealth Championships - Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The Men's Greco-Roman style of wrestling was added to the Commonwealth Championships in 2005 in Capetown, South Africa. The Commonwealth Youth Wrestling Championships ( 15-18yr olds ) has been held on bi-annual basis in Men's and Women's Freestyle wrestling since 2006. The last one being in Singapore in January, 2010.The current Chairman and the founder of Commonwealth Amateur Wrestling Association - JOSIP MRKOCI is pleased with the wrestling advances made within the Commonwealth since 1984 . Mr Mrkoci stated " in terms of growth, performance and achievement of the Commonwealth wrestling athletes is exceptional, not only at the Commonwealth level but at the World and Olympic level as well ". A number of the individual Commonwealth wrestling athletes have achieved the podium performance at Olympics and the World levels......

OLYMPIC GAMES

1984 Chris Renke Canada Bronze 82kg Men's Freestyle wrestling Robert Molle Canada Silver 100kg Men's Freestyle wrestling 1992 Jeff Thue Canada Silver 130kg Men's Freestyle wrestling 1996 Gia Sissaouri Canada Silver 57kg Men's Freestyle wrestling 2000 Daniel Igali Canada GOLD 68kg Men's Freestyle wrestling 2004 Canada Silver 55kg Women's Freestyle wrestling 2008 Sushil Kumar India Bronze 66kg Men's Freestyle wrestling Canada GOLD 48kg Women's Freestyle wrestling Tonya Verbeek Canada Bronze 55kg Women's Freestyle wrestling

OLYMPIC YOUTH GAMES

2010 Jason Afrikaner Namibia 4th 58kg Men's Greco-Roman wrestling Pooja Dhanda India Silver 60kg Women's Freestyle wrestling Dorothy Yeats Canada GOLD 70kg Women's Freestyle wrestling Jaden Lawrence Australia 5th 54kg Men's Freestyle wrestling Satywart Kadian India Bronze 100kg Men's Freestyle wrestling

WORLD WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIP ( Senior ) Individual GOLD medalist - 1984 – 2010

Christine Nordhagen Canada GOLD 68kg-75kg 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000,2001 Daniel Igali Canada GOLD 69kg 1999 Gia Sissaouri Canada GOLD 58kg 2001 Martine Dugrenier Canada GOLD 67kg 2008, 2009, 2010 Sushil Kumar India GOLD 66kg 2010

WORLD WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIP ( Senior 2006 - 2010 medalist )

2006 Lyndsay Belisle Canada Silver 51kg Women's Freestyle wrestling India Bronze 59kg Women's Freestyle wrestling Martine Dugrenier Canada Silver 63kg Women's freestyle wrestling 2007 Erica Sharp Canada Bronze 51kg Women's Freestyle wrestling Martine Dugrenier Canada Silver 63kg Women's Freestyle wrestling 2008 Brittanee Laverdure Canada Bronze 55kg Women's Freestyle wrestling Martine Dugrenier Canada GOLD 67kg Women's Freestyle wrestling Ohenewa Akuffo Canada Bronze 72kg Women's Freestyle wrestling 2009 Tonya Verbeek Canada Bronze 51kg Women's Freestyle wrestling Joustine Bouchard Canada Bronze 63kg Women's Freestyle wrestling Martine Dugrenier Canada GOLD 67kg Women's Freestyle wrestling Ifeoma Iheanacho Nigeria Bronze 67kg Women's Freestyle wrestling Ramesh Kumar India Bronze 74kg Men's Freestyle wrestling 2010 Carol Huynh Canada Bronze 48kg Women's Freestyle wrestling Martine Dugrenier Canada GOLD 67kg Women's Freestyle wrestling Ifeoma Iheanacho Nigeria Bronze 67kg Women's Freestyle wrestling Ohenowa Akuffo Canada Silver 72kg Women's Freestyle wrestling Sushil Kumar India GOLD 66kg Men's Freestyle wrestling

In terms of team performance at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships events - since2002 - India has won the Commonwealth Men's Freestyle wrestling team championships in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009, while Canada has been dominant in Women's Freestyle wrestling. Cameroon has surprised everyone in Women's Freestyle wrestling by winning gold medals at 48kg and 72kg at the 2009 Commonwealth Wrestling Championships held in December in Jalandhar, India.

The host - Wrestling Federation of India is poised to dominate the 2010 COMMONWEALTH GAMES in Men's Greco-Roman wrestling style and Men's Freestyle while Canada is poised to dominate the Women's Freestyle wrestling. The other Commonwealth wrestling nations with strong teams in Greco- Roman wrestling are Australia, South Africa and Pakistan which will challenge Indian Greco-Roman wrestlers for the gold medals. In Men's Freestyle wrestling Canada, South Africa, England, Nigeria and Australia will be chasing India for the gold medals. In Women's Freestyle wrestling at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Canada will be challenged for medals by India, Australia, Scotland, South Africa, Cameroon and Nigeria.

Wrestling is one of the most popular sports in INDIA after cricket. SUSHIL KUMAR is the country's new hero, he recently won a GOLD medal at 2010 Senior World Wrestling Championships in 66kg weight class in Moscow, Russia. Sushil is the first Indian wrestler to accomplish this feat. Beside the world gold medal Sushil is also 2008 Olympic Bronze medalist as well as 2010 Asian Champion and 4- time Commonwealth Wrestling Champion (2003, 2005, 2007 & 2009) in Freestyle wrestling.

India is strong in all three Olympic wrestling styles, their performance has improved tremendously in the last few years at the Commonwealth, Asian, World and Olympic level. The challenge for India's wrestlers will be to maintain the World level performance at this year's COMMONWEALTH GAMES on home ground in New Delhi