India win three medals at Asian Wrestling C'ships

ASTANA: Young grappler Rupin secured a silver in 55kg Greco Roman, his first senior-level international medal, as India made a superb start to their campaign at the Asian Wrestling Championships here on Sunday.

While the 19-year-old Rupin signed off with the second-best finish, Neeraj (63kg GR) and Sunil Kumar (87kg GR) claimed bronze medals.

Rupin lost 1-3 to Iranian Poya Soulat Dad Marz in the final after coming into the summit clash from the qualification round with the help of three successive wins.

Rupin, the 2019 World Cadet Championships bronze medallist, started his campaign with a 16-7 win by technical superiority over Kyrgyzstan's Sardarbek in the qualification round. He then outwitted Kazakhstan's Amangali Rahimbayev and China's Zhang Haifeng in the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively.

In 63 kg, Neeraj, 16, defeated South Korea's Jinseub Song 5-2 to win the bronze medal, while Sunil Kumar beat Japan's Masato Sumi 4-1 in the bronze medal bout in 87kg.

Neeraj edged out Kyrgyzstan's Dastan Kadyrov 7-6 in the qualification round. He lost to Iran's Imam Hossein Khoon Mohammadi 0-9 in the quarterfinal but got a second chance via repechage after Mohammadi made it to the final. The Indian grabbed the opportunity with both hands, beating Song in the bronze medal bout.

Sunil Kumar, a former Asian Championships gold medallist, began his campaign with a 9-1 technical superiority win over Tajikistan's Aslamov in the quarterfinals.