Ulaanbaatar Ranking Series: Sunil Kumar, Nitesh Siwach clinch gold medals in Greco-Roman

Indian Greco-Roman wrestlers Sunil Kumar and Nitesh Siwach bagged two titles on the opening day of the Ulaanbaatar Ranking Series in Mongolia on Thursday.

Sunil defeated Kyrgyzstan’s Azat Salidinov 4-1 in the final to win his second career ranking series title and claim his first ranking series medal in four years.

The six-time Asian medalist had a walkover in the first round and started directly in the 87 kg semi-final, where he defeated Venezuela's Luis Rojas 3-1 to confirm a medal.

On the other hand, Nitesh (97Kg) defeated Nurassyl Amanalay of Kazakhstan in a high-scoring final to win his first-ever Ranking Series gold medal.

Earlier, he battled hard with two close victories against Venezuela’s Juan Blanco and Mongolia’s Gankhuyag Ganbaatar to reach the final for the second consecutive edition.

Meanwhile, Sachin Sahrawat (67 Kg), Ankit Gulia (77 Kg) missed out on a medal, losing their respective bronze medal bouts to the Chinese and Kyrgyzstan wrestlers.

In the men’s 55kg category, Lalit Sehrawat also failed to win a medal, finishing 4th in the Nordic format on tiebreak criteria despite securing two wins out of four matches.

The final three weight categories (60-63-130Kg) of Greco-Roman discipline and the first five women's wrestling weight classes ( 50-53-57-59-72Kg) will commence on Friday.