Comeback-man Deepak Punia and Udit put themselves in contention for their maiden Asian Championship titles while Dinesh and Mukul Dahiya will fight for bronze medals as Indian wrestlers put up a decent show on the last day of the Senior Asian Wrestling Championships in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on Sunday.
The 25-year-old Punia, who could not qualify for the Paris Olympics, began his comeback with a hard-fought contest against Bekzat Rakhimov in 92kg category. He faced stiff resistance from his Kyrgyzstan rival but prevailed 12-7 in a high-scoring quarterfinal.
Japan's Takashi Ishiguro was supposed to be a tough rival but Deepak outplayed him to comfortably win 8-1. He now faces Iran's world number one Amirhossein B Firouzpourbandpei in the gold medal bout.
Deepak has four Asian medals from previous editions. He lost finals in 2021 (Almaty) and 2022 (Ulaanbaatar) and won bronze in 2019 and 2020.
Udit also kept the country in gold medal contention by reaching the final of men's 61kg. He blanked China's Wanhao Zou 2-0 after prevailing 9-6 against Bekbolot Myrzanzar Uulu from Kyrgyzstan.
Udit had settled for a silver last year.
The surprise package of the day was Dahiya, who logged two impressive wins to reach the semifinals.
Singapore's Weng Luen Gary Chow was an easy prey for Dahiya, who won by technical superiority and without losing a point and then beat world number two Mukhammad Abdullaev of Kyrgyzstan 3-1.
In the semifinal, he was overpowered by Iran's world number three Abolfazl Y.Rahmani Firouzjaei, who won by technical superiority.
Competing in heavyweight 125kg class, Dinesh outclassed China's Buheeerdun to win by technical superiority in the quarterfinals but Mongolian Lkhagvagerel Munkhtur beat him in the semifinals 5-1.
Jaideep Ahlawat (74kg), though, was ousted from the competition. He found a tough Japanese opponent in Hikaru Takata in his opening bout, in which he put up a brave resistance but lost 5-10.
© 2025