Indian wrestlers drew a blank on the concluding day of the men's freestyle competition at the Asian Championships after Akash Dahiya and Anirudh Kumar lost their bronze-medal bouts and three others fizzled out before the medal round in their respective categories, in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on Friday, April 12. (More Sports News)
Competing in the non-Olympic 61kg category, Akash began with a close 10-8 win over Sardor Ruzimov from Uzbekistan and followed it up with a comfortable 7-3 victory over Korea's Sanghyeon Son in the quarterfinal.
However, Kazakhstan's Assyl Aitakyn proved too strong for the Indian in the semifinal and could not score a single point, losing his bout by technical superiority.
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In the bronze play-off, he put up a gritty fight but eventually lost to Mongolia's Enkhbold Enkhbat by technical superiority. In 125kg, Anirudh Kumar began with a 3-0 win over Pakistan's Zaman Anwar but was outplayed by Iran's Amir Hossein Abbas Zare in the quarterfinal, losing by technical superiority.
Since the Iranian reached the final, it kept the door open for Anirudh but he was pinned down by Bahrain's Shamil Magomed A Sharipov in the bronze play-off. Yash Tushir (74kg) went out of contention after losing his repechage round by technical superiority to Syrbaz Talgat from Kazakhstan.
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Also bowing out early was Sandeep Singh Maan (86kg), who lost his qualification bout 0-5 to Japan's Tatsuya Shirai. Vinay (92kg) also fizzled out in the 92kg qualification round, losing his bout by fall to veteran Kazakhstan wrestler Adilet Davlumbayev.
India thus won three medals in the men's free style event. Udit (57kg, silver), Abhimanyou (70kg, bronze) and Vicky (97kg, bronze) had secured podium finishes on Thursday.
The women's bouts will begin on Saturday.
