26th Senior Asian Wrestling Championship: Indian greco-roman wrestlers draw a blank

Bhim Singh (Red) of India and Devoud Einollah Gilnirang (Blue) of Iran

Indian wrestlers dished out another downbeat performance on day two of the 26th Senior Asian Wrestling Championship being played at the KD Jadhav Wrestling Stadium in New Delhi on Friday.

Like the opening day, it was a sorry day for the country’s grapplers as none of them were able to live up to the expectations of their home fans and make a podium finish.

In fact, the performance of the Indian was so that listless that only one wrestler made it to the repechage round as our greco-roman wrestlers drew a blank in the championship.

Grappling in the 96-kg greco roman division, Bhim Singh reached the repechage round.

Bhim, who endured a personal misfortune of losing his father only recently, began proceedings on a positive note after rallying from one period down to outclass Aman Toktogonov of Kyrgyzstan 0-1, 1-0, 4-0.

The Indian was slow off the blocks in the first period, allowing Aman to maintain a tight grip over him. But Bhim fought back to level things before coming a cropper in the third and final period.

Bhim could not bring his fighting attributes to the mat in the second round against Kazakhstan’s Yerulan Iskakov, losing tamely 0-7, 0-6 to take the exit door from the championship.

To make things worse for Bhim, he was stretchered off after injuring his right leg.

Later in the bronze medal bout, Bhim lost to Iranian powerhouse Davoud Gilnirang 0-1, 0-8.

Another Indian, Rajbir Chhikara, who like Bhim lost his father a few days back, bowed out in the 74-kg category, losing to Japan’s Tomohiro Inoue 0-1, 0-2. Rajbir earlier had defeated Chinese wrestler Pengfei Yan 0-2, 1-0, 1-0 in the opening round.

Harpreet was the third Greco-roman grappler to falter in the 84-kg, losing to Japan’s Taichi Oka 2-0, 0-1, 0-2) in the first round.

In the women’s section, Priyanka Singh made an early exit, losing her first round bout to Japan’s Ayano Suzuki of Japan 6-1, 3-0, 3-1.

Earlier on day one, 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Sunil Kumar Rana made it to the bronze medal round in the greco-roman category before losing to Kazakhstan’s Yerbol Konyratov 0-1, 1-0, 0-1 in a tight repechage round contest, much to the disappointment of his home fans.

Gaurav Sharma was another Indian to bite the dust in the repechage round in the 55-kg category, losing to DPR Korea’s Won Chul Yun, 0-6, 0-7.

2010 Asian Games bronze medallist Ravinder Singh made a quiet exit from the championship, losing to Korea’s Douk Gil 0-3, 1-0, 0-1 in the 60-kg category.