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Gold eludes India on Day 2 of Asian wrestling

April 24, 2019 21:17 IST

With two silver and three bronze medals on Wednesday, India's medal tally swelled to one gold, three silver and four bronze.

Rahul Aware

IMAGE: Rahul Aware produced a dominant display to beat Jincheol Kim of Korea 9-2 in the men's 61kg freestyle bronze medal play-off. Photograph: PTI

Indian wrestlers reaped a rich harvest of five medals in the men's freestyle events but a gold medal eluded them on the second day of the Asian Championships, in Xi’an, China, on Wednesday.

All the five wrestlers who competed on Wednesday won a medal each, but none could add a gold on the second day Bajrang Punia’s yellow metal in 65kg men's freestyle on Tuesday.

 

Amit Dhankar and Vicky lost their respective gold medal bouts in the 74kg and 92kg respectively. Rahul Aware (61kg), Deepak Punia (86kg) and Sumit (125kg) swelled the Indian medal tally with a bronze each.

With the two silver and three bronze medals on Wednesday, India's medal tally went up to one gold, three silver and four bronze.

Bajrang Punia (65kg) had won a gold on Tuesday while Parveen Rana (79kg) and Satywart Kadian (97kg) clinched a silver and a bronze respectively. 

Dhankar, who won gold in 66kg in the 2013 edition, lost to Daniyar Kaisanov of Kazakhstan 0-5 in the final.

The 28-year-old Haryana wrestler began with a narrow 2-1 win in qualification round against Mohammad Ashghar Nokhodilarimi of Iran and then hardly broke a sweat in the quarter-finals as his opponent -- Japan's Yuhi Fujinami -- was injured.

In the semi-finals, Dhankar outplayed Ilgiz Dzhakypbekov of Kyrgyzstan in a 5-0 victory. Vicky got a walkover in the quarter-finals as his opponent -- Muhammad Inam of Pakistan -- did not turn up for the bout. In the semi-finals, he had a narrow 3-2 win over Xiao Sun of China.

But in the gold medal bout, Alireza Mohammad Karimimachiani of Iran was too good for Vicky and the Indian was completely outplayed in a 0-11 Victory by Technical Superiority verdict.

Aware, who won a 57kg gold at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, produced a dominant display to beat Jincheol Kim of Korea 9-2 in the men's 61kg freestyle bronze medal play-off.

After beating Jahongirmirza Turobov of Uzbekistan by technical superiority (10-0) in the qualification round, the 27-year-old Indian lost to Behnam Eshagh Ehsanpoor of Iran in the quarter-finals in a ‘Victory by Fall’ verdict.

But since Ehsanpoor reached the final, Aware was up against Siripong Jumpakam of Thailand in the repechage round which he won 12-1 by virtue of technical superiority.

In the 86kg freestyle, Deepak Punia began on a bright note with a 11-7 win over Dovletmyrat Orazgylyjov of Turkmenistan in the qualification round before beating Lin Zushen of China in another victory by point.

In the semi-finals, Deepak lost to Kamran Ghorban Ghasempour of Iran in a lopsided 10-0 victory by technical superiority. In the bronze medal play-off, Deepak beat Bakhodur Kodirov of Tajikistan 8-2.

For Sumit, it was a lucky bronze as he lost straightway in the quarter-finals against Zhiwe Deng of China 0-3. But since Deng reached the final, Sumit made his way to the bronze-medal play-off, where he crushed Farkhod Anakulov of Tajikistan 8-2.

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