Dharmender keeps India's hopes alive

Indian grappler Dharmender Dalal lost his quarter-final bout and will compete in the repechage round to keep India's bronze medal hopes alive in men's 120kg category Greco-Roman event of the Asian Games.

While Dharmender still has an outside chance of bagging a third place, his compatriot Vinod Kumar is not so lucky as he bowed out of the competition after being outplayed 3-0 by his opening round opponent Tsogtbaatar Damdinbazar of Mangolia.

Dharmender started the day on a high note when he got the better of Hirokazu Shinjo of Japan 3-1 in his opening round match to advance to the quarterfinals.

But the Indian wrestler came a cropper against Kazakhstan's Nurmakhan Tinaliyev, who proved to be too strong for him. Tinaliyev took 10 minutes and 58 seconds to register a 3-0 win against Dharmender.

Having failed to enter the last four stage, Dharmender will now face Chivinn Chum of Cambodia in Repechage round 1 bout later in the day and if he manages win it, he would face Iraq's Ali Salman.

A win against his Iraqi opponent would give him a chance to fight for the bronze medal against either Hani Marafi of Jordan or Murodjon Tuychiev of Tajikistan.