Asian Wrestling C'ships: Sunil Kumar wins bronze in men's 87kg Greco Roman

Sunil Kumar was India's only silver lining on the opening day at the 2025 Asian Wrestling Championships in Amman, Jordan on Tuesday.

He opened India's medal tally at the continental championships, winning the bronze medal in men's 87kg Greco Roman.

Sunil, a medallist from the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, beat China's Jiaxin Huang 5-1 in the bronze medal bout.

Earlier in the day, he had stormed into the semifinal of the men's with a dominant 10-1 lead over Tajikistan's Abdulkhaev S.

He later lost to Yasin Ali Yazdi of Iran 1-3 in a closely fought semi-final bout to move into the bronze medal fight.

Sunil Kumar was among the five Greco Roman wrestlers in action on the first day for India.

Earlier, Sagar Thakran won his opening bout against Singapore’s Azman Bin but fell short to Jordan's Sadeh A in 77kg weight class.

Prem (130kg), Nitin (55kg) and Umesh (63kg) all lost in their opening round encounters. 

Prem lost to Iraq’s Ali Yaseen Talib Al Sharuee while Nitin failed to challenge Y Ro of People’s Republic of Korea 1-3 VPO1 in the opening round.

In 63kg, Umesh's bout lasted less than two minutes, losing a one-sided contest to Sultan Assetuly.

Assetuly, first wrestler from Kazakhstan to win the U23 world title, won 4-0 (9-0) a victory by superiority.

Another five greco roman wrestlers - Sumit (60kg), Neeraj (67kg), Kuldeep (72kg), Rahul (82kg), Nitesh (97kg) - will be in action on Wednesday.