NEW DELHI, Apr 19: India’s hopes of winning a medal in the Greco-Roman category went up in smoke after Bhim Singh lost his bronze-medal bout at the Senior Asian Wrestling Championship here today.
Bhim was thrashed by his Iranian opponent, Davoud Gilnirang, in the 96 kg category.
Davoud did not allow any opening for the Indian to score points in the bouts. The Iranian registered a resounding 1-0 8-0 win over the burly Indian, much to the disappointment of the Indian fans.
Bhim suffered a muscle strain during the match and was taken off from the arena on a stretcher.
He had entered the bronze medal reckoning after winning the first repechage round 1-0 0-5 2-0 against Syria’s N Saleh.
Earlier, Bhim was comprehensively beaten by Yerulan Iskakov of Kazakhstan 0-7 0-6 in a bout that lasted a little over a minute, at the K D Jadhav Wrestling Stadium.
A delayed arrival for the bout did not help the Indian grappler in taking on a stronger Kazakh opponent. Bhim, who was relaxing after winning his first bout, came in running into the arena. He proved no match for Iskakov who rolled him thrice in the opening few seconds to win the first period by technical fall.
In the second period too, Bhim meekly surrendered as the Kazakh proved too much for him, and crashed out of the semifinal race.
The Kazakh wrestler went on to beat Iran’s Davoud Gilnirang in a controversial semifinal bout.
The Iranian was deprived of a win in a bout that very much looked like dictated by him. He had his Kazakh opponent on the mat on three occasions but the referee did not find the falls convincing to award points.
Iran claimed that their wrestlers had pinned the opponent’s shoulders on the mat. On one occasion, they went on to challenge the referee’s decision, but the 50-50 call went in the Kazakh’s favour. (PTI)
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