Asian Games: Sunil Kumar kept India in hunt for its first Greco Roman medal in 13 years.© PTI
Sunil Kumar kept India in hunt for its first Greco Roman medal in 13 years at the Asian Games by reaching the 87kg bronze play-off even as three of his compatriots exited the tournament on Wednesday. Sunil began with a close 4-3 win over China’s Fei Ping and followed that up with a technical superiority victory over Tajikistan’s Sukhrob Abdulkhaev, winning the quarterfinal in the first period itself. The 2020 Asian champion then bumped into formidable reigning Asian champion Naser Alizadeh from Iran and lost 1-4 to go out of the gold medal race.
(Asian Games 2023 Medal Tally | Asian Games 2023 Full Schedule)
The Indian will now fight it out with Kyrgyzstan’s Atabek Azisbekov to win the country’s first Greco Roman medal since 2010.
India had won two medals in this style in the Guangzhou edition with Ravinder Singh (60kg) and Sunil Kumar Rana (66kg) winning a bronze each.
The other Indians in contention — Gyanender (60kg), Neeraj (67kg) and Vikas (77kg) — could not even win a single round.
Gyanender lost his opening bout 1-7 to Iran’s Meysam Dalkhani while Neeraj lost 3-5 to Uzbekistan’s Makhmud Bakhshilloev.
Vikas lost his bout by technical superiority to China’s Rui Liu.
On Thursday, the two remaining Indian Greco Roman wrestlers — Narinder Cheema (97kg) and Naveen (130kg) — will present their challenge.
The women’s competition will also begin on Thursday and fast rising Antim Panghal (53kg) will be in action along with the talented Pooja Gehlot (50kg) and Mansi Ahlawat (57kg).
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