Asian Games: Wrestlers Geetika, Vinesh romp into semis

Geetika Jakhar

India’s women grapplers outshoned their male counterparts with as many as two of them romping into the semifinals of the freestyle 48-kg category at the Dowon Gymnasium on Saturday. Geetika Jakhar showed her class first accounting for Kazakhstan’s Larionova Yekaterina in the opening round before going on to prevail over Thailand’s Auntun Jaratrawee in the quarterfinals. The 29-year-old Indian wrestler, who had featured in the 2006 Doha Asian Games as well as in the recent Glasgow Commonwealth Games, will now play China’s Xiluo Zhuoma in the semifinals.

Another Indian women, Vinesh made the semifinal cut in the freestyle 63-kg category. She got the better of Uzbekistan’s Yakshimuratova Dauletbike in the quarterfinals in a keenly contested bout. Vineesh earlier snuffed out the challenge of Korea’s Pak Yongmi in the opening round.

Earlier, the Indian men grapplers put up a disappointing showing. 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games gold medallist Amit Kumar was in for a shock as he was overpowered by Japan’s Morishita Fumitaka in the freestyle 57-kg category. The woes of the men’s wrestlers were further compounded when Praveen Rana crashed out losing to Japan’s Kojima Takafumi in the freestyle 70-kg category. However, all is not lost for Amit Kumar and Praveen Rana as they can bank on the repechage rounds to push for at least a bronze medal.