The Nordic system in place with just four contenders—if you’d like to think so—in her 53kg category, Vinesh Phogat had to beat three of them for the gold. She did so without losing a single point. She did so by pinning two of them, Canada's Samantha Stewart in 36 seconds and Sri Lanka's Chamodya Keshani Maduravalage Don in 144 in her final workout of the day for the gold.

The medal was never in question. The smile was.

After months of that vanishing into the deep, dark hole that elite sport can bring with it, it was finally back. On the mats of the Coventry Arena where her grin spread as wide as her competition slimmed, Vinesh hopped around with gay abandon. And before leaving the stage that gave her the 2022 Commonwealth Games (CWG) triumph, she bowed to the large Indian presence in the arena.

The Nordic system in place with just four contenders—if you’d like to think so—in her 53kg category, Vinesh Phogat had to beat three of them for the gold. She did so without losing a single point. She did so by pinning two of them, Canada's Samantha Stewart in 36 seconds and Sri Lanka's Chamodya Keshani Maduravalage Don in 144 in her final workout of the day for the gold.

The medal was never in question. The smile was.

After months of that vanishing into the deep, dark hole that elite sport can bring with it, it was finally back. On the mats of the Coventry Arena where her grin spread as wide as her competition slimmed, Vinesh hopped around with gay abandon. And before leaving the stage that gave her the 2022 Commonwealth Games (CWG) triumph, she bowed to the large Indian presence in the arena.

Also doing the same moments ago was Ravi Dahiya, the Tokyo Olympics silver medallist who had an equally straightforward day in the office from where he checked out with the 57kg gold.

It was the 27-year-old Vinesh’s third straight gold at the CWG—the first woman wrestler to do so—after winning the 48kg in Glasgow in 2014 and 50kg in Gold Coast four years ago. Evidently so, Vinesh is used to turning up at this stage and walking away a champion. Yet this medal has far greater significance than a mere walk-in-the-park march to victory.

“I’m so happy,” Vinesh turned towards Samantha and whispered on the podium, that grin still intact minutes later.

“I’m just enjoying this moment right now,” Vinesh added in her speech after the medal ceremony.

She didn’t for a while. The months between the postponed Tokyo Olympics last year and the CWG had been marred by physical and mental troubles for one of India’s most celebrated wrestlers.

Leading up to the Games, Vinesh had been the face of the small favourites’ club in Tokyo in the women’s freestyle 53kg category. She crashed out in the quarter-final, losing by fall to Vanesa Kaladzinskaya of Belarus and returned with nothing to show and plenty of ponder. She opened up about her mental health troubles, unsure whether should will even be back on the mat, because, unlike with her 2016 Rio Olympics that ended abruptly with those painful injury scenes, she did not know she had to “fix” this time.

In its aftermath, she was at the receiving end of the national federation’s ire. After the shock defeat in Tokyo, she was threatened with suspension on charges of indiscipline. She locked herself into a cocoon, away from the highs and lows of public life.

She made a comeback quest at the selection trials for the World Championships, which ended in her conceding the match owing to a blurred vision from a bout of concussion she had suffered back in 2017. Even as her mind slowly warmed up to the thought of doing her thing on the mat, the body didn’t, with injuries cropping up.

But she turned up for the CWG trials, and despite a whiff of challenge in the final, booked her CWG ticket. The Games would be less about her winning a medal and more about finding her joy on the wrestling mat again. And as her smile on Saturday showed, there’s been some progress there. No bigger victory than that for Vinesh.

Naveen joins Ravi in gold rush

Nigeria's Welson Ebikewenimo stood no chance against Ravi, the Indian winning by technical superiority with a little over two minutes into the contest.

True to style that stuck even after his Olympic feat, Ravi wasn’t too emotive. A simple folded hands gesture to the crowd, a little run around the mat that felt more like a thing he knew he had to do rather than something he wanted to. The face too remained poker-faced, a little smile at the medal ceremony was he would give for the CWG gold.

Also winning the 74kg gold was Naveen, whose first match of the day saw him concede three points but just one after that. He beat Pakistan's Muhammad Sharif Tahir 9-0 in the final.

Pooja Gehlot, meanwhile, who kicked things off on Mat A on Saturday, took the bronze after being no match to Christelle Lemofack Letchidjio in the 59kg bronze medal match. The Scotland grappler beat the Indian on technical superiority. Also winning the 76kg bronze was Pooja Sihag, who beat Australian Naomi de Bruine for the medal.