Asian Wrestling Championships: Indian wrestlers disappoint, Sunil Rana crash out in bronze medal round

Sunil Kumar Rana (blue) at the Asian Senior Wrestling Championship

It was a disappointing day for the Indian wrestlers at the 26th Senior Asian Wrestling Championship which got under way at the KD Jadhav Wrestling Stadium in New Delhi on Thursday. None of the country’s wrestlers in action on the opening day were able to make a podium finish.

2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Sunil Kumar Rana made it to the bronze medal round in the greco-roman category.

Grappling in the 66-kg category, Rana, who is also the 2010 Asian Games bronze medallist, went down fighting to Kazakhstan’s Yerbol Konyratov 0-1, 1-0, 0-1 in a tight repechage round contest much to the disappointment of the home fans.

The Indian conceded the opening period 0-1 before coming out all guns blazing in the second period before the Kazakh had the last laugh.

In fact, the third period was resorted to tie-breaker after the completion of 1:30 minutes.

Rana failed to make the most of winning the toss and capitulated to Yerbol.

Earlier, Rana received a bye in the first round. The Indian then hit the mat and brushed aside China’s Gaoquan Zhang 2-0, 1-1 to reach the semifinal.

The Indian was no match for Korea’s Ji-Hun Kim in the semifinals, losing tamely 0-7, 0-4 – Kim went on to clinch the gold in the 66-kg category.

Gaurav Sharma was another Indian to bite the dust in the repechage round.

Fighting in the 55-kg category, the Indian lost to DPR Korea’s Won Chul Yun, 0-6, 0-7 in a contest where the former struggled to stay competitive.

Sharma had earlier lost his quarterfinal bout to Korea’s Gyu-Jin Choi 2-4, 0-2.

Since the Korean went on to reach the final, the Indian went into the bronze medal match thorough repechage rounds.

India suffered a big jolt earlier in the day when 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.

Ravinder, who is also the 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist, fought back after losing the opening period tamely before running out of steam in the final period.

Another Indian, Naveen, also lost his opening bout to Iran’s Bashir Babajanzadeh in the 120-kg greco-roman category.

Indian medal hopes now rest on the freestyle wrestlers.

2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Narsingh Yadav and 2012 Asian Championship bronze medallist Amit Kumar would be the favourites to pull off a podium finish.