Astana (Kazakhstan): Greco-Roman grappler Vikas won a bronze medal to take India’s tally to four on the second day of the Asian Wrestling Championships 2023, here.
Vikas defeated China’s Jian Tan by 8-0 technical superiority in the men’s 72kg Greco-Roman category, within a remarkable time of 1 min 41 secs on Monday.
The Indian started his campaign strongly with an 11-0 technical superiority win over Korea’s Ji-yeon Lee in the qualification round. However, he suffered a 6-1 loss to Iran’s Sajjad Imentalab in the quarter-finals.
Vikas made the bronze medal bout after Sajjad Imentalab advanced to the final, an olympics.com report said.
Three other Indian wrestlers — Sumit (60kg), Rohit Dahiya (82kg) and Narinder Cheema (97kg) — were in contention for the medals. However, all three of them lost in the bronze medal match.
Sumit, who defeated Turkmenistan’s Umit Durdy by 9-0 technical superiority in the qualification, lost 0-10 in the quarter-finals to Kyrgyzstan’s world champion Zholaman Sharshenbekov, who went on to win the gold. In the bronze medal match, Sumit lost 6-14 to Japan’s Maito Kawana.
Meanwhile, Rohit Dahiya lost 5-1 to Iran’s Alireza Mohmadi in the bronze medal match. Rohit had defeated Singapore Aryan Azman 12-4 in the first round, but lost 1-7 to eventual gold medallist Akylbek Talantbekov of Kyrgyzstan in the next.
In the 97kg category, Narinder Cheema reached the semi-finals where he lost 0-9 to Kyrgyzstan’s Uzur Dzhuzupbekov. In the bronze medal match, Narinder suffered a 4-1 defeat to Kazakhstan’s Olzhas Syrlybay.
India finished the Greco-Roman campaign with four medals. On Sunday, Rupin bagged a silver in the 55kg category while Neeraj (63kg) and Sunil Kumar (87kg) claimed bronze medals.
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