LONDON, Aug 10:
India’s young wrestler Amit Kumar was handed a lifeline as he made it to the repechage stage after losing the quarter-final bout in the men’s 55kg freestysle category while compatriot Narsingh Pancham Yadav crashed out of the Olympics Games at ExCel centre here today.
Amit Kumar, the youngest wrestler in the contingent at 19, overcame his Iranian opponent Hassan Sabzali Rahimi in the pre-quarter finals before going down 1-3 to Georgia’s Vladimer Khinchegashvili rather tamely in the quarterfinals.
But with the Georgian progressing to the final, Amit has got another chance to have a crack at the bronze medal in the repechage.
Amit will take on the winner of the contest between Ibrahim Farag Mohammed of Egypt and Rodoslav Marinov Velikov of Bulgaria in the repechage.
Narsingh, however, had no such luck as his vanquisher, Matthew Judah Gentry of Canada also lost in the subsequent round in the 74kg free style category.
The wrestler from Mumbai lost 1-3 to the Canadian in the pre-quarters.
The 19-year-old Amit, meanwhile, was simply no match for the strong Georgian who won the first period comfortably after gaining four technical points while Amit got none. The Indian team challenged a decision but to no avail.
The Indian could not capitalise on a clinch in the first round as the Georgian had him nearly pinned to the mat and scored three technical points in the process.
In the second period, Amit made a desperate bid to gain points and was a lot more aggressive but his rival was technically superior than him to allow him any leeway. The Indian could manage just one point as against the three managed by his rival.
Khinchegashvili won the bout comfortably with a 3-1 verdict. (PTI)
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