Asian Games: Narsingh Yadav bags bronze in 74-kg

Narsingh Yadav (red)

The Indian freestyle men’s wrestling contingent picked up its third medal at the Asian Games as Narsingh Yadav bagged a bronze medal in the 74-kg category defeating Japan’s Shimada Daisuke in the final at the Dowon Gymnasium. The 25-year-old wrestler – the most experienced wrestler in the team after Yogeshwar Dutt – will be happy with his feat as it is his first medal in any major international tourney.

The medal door was not easy for Narsingh as he had to battle through the repechage round after losing the opening round to Uzbekistan’s Rashid Kurbanov. He got the better of Kambarov Ramazan of Turkmenistan in the repechage round for a berth in the bronze medal play-off round, where he pipped Shimada. Narsingh started slowly but kept scoring points at a rapid pace to seal the bronze in his favour.

Earlier, Bajrang Kumar’s hopes of winning the country’s fifth gold medal went up in smoke as he had to settle for the silver losing to Iran’s Esmaeilpoorjouybari Masoud in the final of the freestyle 61-kg category at the Dowon Gymnasium. The 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games silver medallist was up against an opponent, who hardly broke any sweat making it to the final and was in for a tough challenge.

Bajrang allowed the Iranian to wrest the initiative as the latter nosed ahead with a 2-0 lead in the opening round. The Indian fought hard in the second round, sneaking two points but the Masoud also kept winning crucial points to corner glory.

The 20-year-old, who is also the 2013 Asian Championship bronze medallist, had prevailed over Japan’s Japan’s Takatsuka Noriyuki in the semifinals. The Haryana lad earlier had advanced to the semifinals after putting it across Tajikistan’s Farkhodi Usmomdoza in the quarterfinals. Bajrang had shrugged off a sluggish start to put it across Mongolia’s Tuvshintulga Tumenbileg.

The 2013 World Championship bronze medallist was trailing 2-4 in the first round, but showed nerves of steel to claw his way back and emerged the winner. On the final day of freestyle wrestling, Narsingh Yadav got the better of Japan’s Shimada Daisuke in the freestyle 74-kg category ad will now play Kambarov Ramazan of Turkmenistan in the bronze medal play-off bout. He had earlier lost in the opening round to Uzbekistan’s Rashid Kurbanov.

India’s Pawan Kumar lost in the repechage round of the freestyle 86-kg category losing to China’s Zhang Feng. He went down fighting to formidable Meisam Mostafajoukar of Iran in the quarterfinals after defeating Nepal’s Sumir Kumar Sah in emphatic fashion in the first round.

Yogeshwar Dutt gave the Indian wrestling camp plenty to rejoice about bagging the country’s irst Asian Games gold medal after a hiatus of 28 years S Kadian crashed out in the bronze medal play-off round in the 97-kg category, while Amit Kumar and Praveen Rana bowed out in their opening rounds. Among the Indian women, Vinesh and Geetika Jhakar clinched bronze medals in the 48-kg and 63-kg respectively. Babita Kumar lost in the bronze medal play-off round in the 55-kg category, while Jyoti lost in the quarterfinals of the women’s 75-kg category.