Asian Wrestling C'ship: India wins 3 medals on day 1

Indian grapplers got off to a great start at the 2023 Asian Wrestling Championships with Rupin (55kg GR), Neeraj (63kg GR) and Sunil Kumar (87kg GR) medals on Sunday in Astana.

While Rupin bagged the silver medal, Neeraj and Sunil Kumar came up with a bronze each for India.

Rupin, who started his campaign from the qualification round, registered three wins on the trot to make his way into the 55kg Greco Roman final. In the final the youngster lost to Iran's Poya Soulat Dad Marz 1-3 by points to settle for a silver medal.

This was the 19-year-old Rupin's first-ever senior international medal.

The 2019 World Cadet Championships bronze medallist defeated Kyrgyzstan's Sardarbek 16-7 by technical superiority in the qualification round before winning against Kazakhstan's Amangali Rahimbayev and China's Zhang Haifeng.

Bronze for Neeraj, Sunil

Neeraj defeated South Korea's Jinseub Song to win the bronze medal while competing in men's 63kg Greco Roman category.

Neeraj started off his campaign with a hard fought 7-6 win over Kyrgyzstan's Dastan Kadyrov in the qualification round. He then lost to Iran's Imam Hossein Khoon Mohammadi 0-9 by technical superiority in the quarterfinal.

However, Mohammadi's entry into the final gave Neeraj a shot at the bronze medal via the repechage route. The Indian made most of his opportunity while the Iranian went on to clinch the gold medal.

On the other hand, Sunil Kumar defeated Japan's Masato Sumi 4-1 in the bronze medal bout of 87kg Greco Roman.

The former Asian Championships gold medallist started off with a 9-1 technical superiority win over Tajikistan's Aslamov in the quarterfinal, but lost to Iran's Naser Ghasem Alizadeh in the semifinal to enter the bronze medal contest.