Asian Wrestling C'ships: Sujeet withdraws with injury as India fail to add to tally

Indian men's freestyle contingent had an underwhelming start to the 2025 Asian Wrestling Championships as none of the five grapplers were able to make it to the medal matches in Amman, Jordan on Saturday.

Indian fans were eager to watch the young and revamped Indian men's freestyle team, which included the U23 World Champion Chirag (57 Kg) and the rising star Sujeet Kalkal (65 Kg).

The 19-year-old Chirag found it difficult on his senior international debut and had a first-round exit against the former medalist Almaz Smanbekov of Krgyzstan.

On the other hand, Sujeet started the day with a win in his opening encounter against a Palestinian wrestler, but then, in the quarter-final, he got overpowered by Japan's Kaisei Tanabe.

Tanabe found a comfortable gut-wrench position and took a solid lead with two turns from that position. This maneuver, however, hurt Sujeet's ankle. The Indian not return to the mat and gave an injury walkover.

Although Tanabe reached the final, Sujeet still could not compete at the repchage as he hasn't fully recovered from his earlier injury, ending his dream for the maiden Asian medal.

In the 79 kg, Chandermohan also booked his place in the quarter-finals after a solid win against Asadbek Karimov of Uzbekistan. But he could not cross his next huddle and got pinned by Magomet Evloev of Tajikistan.

Chander was at the lead in the match for a good portion of the game, but in the second round, his attacking move went against him and Evloev found a good grip and pinned the Indian wrestler.

On the other hand, Vishal Kaliramana (70 Kg) and Jointy Kumar (97 Kg) also had a first-round exit, losing to Mongolian and Iranian wrestlers, respectively.

The final batch of Indian freestyle wrestlers, including top wrestlers like Deepak Punia (92 Kg) and Udit (61 Kg), will kickstart their campaign on Sunday, hoping to open the nation's account in this discipline.