Asian Wrestling Championship: Harpreet, Sachin add two more bronze to tally

Sachin Sahrawat and Harpeet Singh grabbed bronze medals on Wednesday as India's Greco Roman contingent cherished its third best show at the Asian Championship with five medals. In first edition of Greco Roman events at the Asian Championships in 1983 india had won 10 medals but that time only 4 countries particpated in Greco Roman.

Competing in the 67kg category, Sachin dominated the bronze play-off, winning by fall against Uzbekistan's Mahmud Bakhshilloev. This was after he lost his quarterfinal in a similar manner to Meiirzhan Shermakhanbet from Kazakhstan. Harpreet (82kg) did not have to move a sinew in his medal bout as his rival from Qatar, Jafar Khan M Khan, did not take the mat due to an injury. The medal-winning show from Sachin and Harpreet meant that India ended up with five medals in Greco Roman event of the championship.

In the 2020 edition, India had won one gold (won by Sunil Kumar) and four bronze medals in Delhi. On the opening day of the championships on Tuesday, Sunil Kumar (87kg), Arjun Halakurki (55kg) and Neeraj (63kg) had won bronze medals. Encouraged by team's stupendous show, the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) said that it will ensure that country's Greco Roman wrestlers will have sparring partners from abroad at the national camp so that their performances keep getting better.

"To win these medals when you have a strong Japan, Iran and Kazakhastan in field is no mean achievement. The wrestlers have asked for better training partners from abroad and we will get them after this Championship," WFI Assiatant Secretary Vinod Tomar told PTI. "We have told Indian coaches that they have to run training program at the camps. We are not hiring any foreign coach now. Regular practice at the camp has given us results this year," he added.

In 60kg, Gyanendra lost his bronze play-off by technical superiority to Japan's Ayata Suzuki. In 72kg, Vikas could not go beyond the quarterfinals, where he lost by technical superiority to Uzbekistan's Mirzobek Rakhmatov. Ravi, who competed in the 97kg, also lost at the same stage. He lost his last-eight clash 1-3 to Kyrgyzstan's U. Dzhuzupbekov. The women's wrestling will begin from Thursday. For India, World Championship bronze winner Sarita Mor, who will compete in 59kg, will be the best bet for a medal on Thursday while World silver winner Anshu Malik will take mat on Friday.