Indian grapplers out of medal contention

After an impressive opening day on the mat, Indian wrestlers cut a sorry figure at the Asian Games today with the trio of Manoj Kumar, Anil Kumar and Sanjay finishing out of the medal bracket in their respective weight categories of the Greco-Roman competitions in Guangzhou.

While Manoj lost out on a bronze by whisker in the 84kg category, Anil and Sanjay were shown the door in the opening round of 96kg and 74kg weight divisions respectively at the Huagong Gymnasium here.

Manoj started his campaign on a positive note defeating Ali Awarke of Lebanon 3-0 the first round.

He then defeated Nezar Oudeh of Syria 3-0 in the quarterfinals before losing 0-3 to eventual gold medalist Taleb Nematpour of Iran in the last four bout.

Manoj, however, had a golden opportunity to pocket the country's third bronze in wrestling but it was not to be as he lost 0-3 to Janarbek Kenjeev of Kyrgyzstan in the bronze medal bout.

The silver in this weight class went to Seyeol Lee of Korea while Kenjeev and Alkhazur Ozdiyev of Kazakhstan bagged the bronze medals.

In the 74kg category, Sanjay lost his opening bout 0-3 to Daniyar Kobonov of Kyrgyzstan, who later went on to win the gold.

Sanjay, however, got a chance to make up for his opening round dismal showing in the repechage but he surrendered 0-3 to Roman Melyoshin of Kazakhstan.

Tsukasa Tsurumaki of Japan won the silver in this weight class while the bronze went to Farshad Alizadeh Kalehkesh and Park Jinsung of Korea.

There was more disappointment in store for Indian grapplers on the day as Anil Kumar too bowed out in the first round of 96kg category, losing 0-3 to Kyrgyzstan's Azamat Erkimbaev.

Ravinder Singh and Sunil on Sunday ended India's three-decade medal drought in the Asian Games Greco-Roman wrestling after they won the bronze medals in the 60 and 66kg weight category.