By B Shrikant

Birmingham, Aug 5 (IANS): Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik turned back the clock to register a dominant victory to bag gold medal in the women's freestyle 65kg bout, beating Canada's Ana Godinez Gonzalez by fall in the Commonwealth Games here on Friday.

Sakshi, who seemed to have gone off the boil after her success in the Rio Olympics, missing some events and got upstages by younger opponents, made a brilliant comeback both in her bout on Friday and her career as she stomped her authority.

Her opponent, who had come to Canada from Mexico at a very young age with her family seeking political asylum, is strong grappler having won medals in World Championships

She started aggressively and effected two takedowns in the first period to take 4-0 lead.

But Sakshi fought back strongly in the second period, going on an attack and taking two points. She then counterattacked brilliantly and effected a fall by pinning her opponent's shoulder to the mat to win the match.

Sakshi was ecstatic with her performance and want on a victory lap around the bout area, very happy with the way she won the bout.