Asian Wrestling C'ships: Greco-Roman wrestlers win 4 medals

ASTANA: Greco-Roman wrestler Vikas clinched a bronze medal to take India's medal tally to four at the ongoing Asian Wrestling Championships 2023 in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Monday. According to Olympics.com. Vikas downed China's Jian Tan by 8-0 technical superiority in men's 72 kg category in Greco-Roman wrestling.

Vikas started off his campaign on a strong note with an 11-0 technical superiority win over Korea's Ji-yeon Lee in the qualification round. But he lost his quarterfinal match by 6-1 to Iran's Sajjad Imentalab. Imentalab advanced to the final and Vikas made it to the bronze medal match. The other three Indian wrestlers who were in contention for medals but lost their bronze medal bout were Sumit (60kg), Rohit Dahiya (82kg) and Narinder Cheema (97kg).

Sumit, who had defeated Turkmenistan's Umit Durdyyew by 9-0 technical superiority in the qualification, lost his quarterfinal bout to Kyrgyzstan's world champion Zholaman Sharshenbekov by 10-0, with the latter eventually clinching the gold. In his bronze medal bout, Sumit registered a 14-6 loss to Japan's Maito Kawana. Rohit on the other hand lost to Iran's Alireza Mohmadi in his bronze medal bout. He had earlier defeated Singapore's Aryan Azman 12-4 in the first round, but lost by 7-1 to Akylbek Talantbekov of Kyrgyzstan in the next round. Akylbek would go on to win the gold.

In the 97 kg category, Narinder Cheema lost to Kyrgyzstan's Uzur Dzhuzupbekov by 9-0 in the semifinal, which was followed by a 4-1 defeat to Kazakhstan's Olzhas Syrlybay in the bronze medal bout. Indian contingent finished its Greco-Roman campaign with a total of four medals, with Rupin (55 kg), Neeraj (63 kg) and Sunil Kumar (87 kg) getting bronze medals earlier. At the last year's Asian championships in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Indian Greco-Roman wrestlers won five medals - all of them being bronze The Asian Wrestling Championships kicked off in Astana, Kazakhstan from April 9 onwards and will go on till April 14.