Indian wrestler Sunil Kumar wins silver at Rome Ranking Series event

Indian wrestler Sunil Kumar’s dream of reclaiming victory on Day 1 of the UWW Rome Ranking Series event remained unfulfilled after he lost to Hungary’s Victor Lorincz in the finals of 87kg on Wednesday. The UWW Greco-Roman wrestler of the year, Lorincz has maintained an undefeated record in the ranking events after having owned a five-ranking series title.

The last year’s world’s runners-up picked up an inactivity point and a step out in the first period, after which Sunil cleared the deficit margin by 1. The sixth-career Ranking Series title holder Lorincz potentially relied on his defensive talent while hanging there to walk away with the gold medal 2-1. He has tallied 19 wins in his previous five Ranking Series appearances. With his consecutive victories, Lorincz improved his Ranking Series record to total 23-0 with a 2-1 win over the Indian.

“I am very happy to win this tournament. I want to continue this very good series for me. I want to win the last two qualifications (European Championships and Poland Open) because it helps my seed for the Olympic Games,” Lorincz told WrestlingTV.

Before losing out in the final, Sunil had downed three-time Pan American champion Avendano Rojas Eduardo of Venezuela to make it to the finals. Earlier, he prevailed over Patrick Anthony Martinez of the USA in the quarterfinal stage. “I am happy by my silver medal-winning performance but I think I had my chances in the finals. But overall, I am satisfied with the way I performed here in the ranking series event”, Sunil said.

Among other Indians in the fray were Sachin Rana in 60kg and Ashu in 67kg who lost their individual bronze medal bouts. While Sachin went down to Firuz Tukhtaev of Uzbekistan 0-9, Ashu lost tamely to Qiye Tian of China 0-9 after forging an extraordinary comeback victory in the morning to advance to the bronze medal round later in the day.

After the men’s team’s bouts yesterday, the women wrestling team will be in action today with the biggest medal contender bring Vinesh Phogat. As many as four women wrestlers, including Asian Games Bronze medallist Divya Kakran (68kg), two-time Cadet World Champ Sonam Malik (62kg), Anshu Malik (57kg), and Kiran Bishnoi (76kg) will take on the mat today at the season’s first ranking series event in Rome.