Asian Games 2018: Sushil Kumar knocked out in first round

The Asian Games are underway in Jakarta and Palembang, and India hasn't had the best of starts. After Manu Bhaker and Abhishek Verma's disappointing exit in the 10m Air Pistol Shooting event, yet another sportsperson has been subjected to an early defeat. This time, it is Olympic medalist Sushil Kumar who has stunningly exited the 74 kg Wrestling competition at the qualifying stages. Moreover, Sushil's victor Adam Batirov of Bahrain lost in the subsequent round, ensuring that the Indian wrestler would not even make it to the repechage round. Big things are expected of the wrestling contingent, which India has sent over to Indonesia. Wrestling has been one of India's favourite disciplines over the years. The testament to the fact is that the sport was

one of the highest medal-winning disciplines for India at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. However, the Indian contingent has been delivered an early blow today as Sushil Kumar lost in the qualification round. The Indian wrestler succumbed to Bahrain's Adam Batirov. https://twitter.com/jon_selvaraj/status/1031119151727751168 Kumar got a good start under his belt as he won the first round against his opponent from Bahrain. The scoreline read 2-1 to the Indian wrestler at the end of round one. However, Kumar's opponent Batirov rallied in the second round to thrash the Indian 4-1. As a result, the bout ended in Batirov's favour by 5-3. Batirov was assigned three classification points, while Kumar one, at the end of the bout. Whatever slim chances Kumar had left were destroyed when Adam Batirov lost in the Quarterfinal to Japan's Fujinami. The Bahrainian wrestler's loss meant that Kumar would not be provided with a second chance through the Repechage round, and was indeed eliminated from the 2018 Asian Games.

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