New Delhi, Apr 24: India pocketed one silver and one bronze through Bajrang and Satywart Kadian in their respective men’s freestyle categories on the second day of the Senior Asian Wrestling Championship in Astana, Kazakhstan today.
Bajrang won a silver in 61kg freestyle, while Kadian settled for a bronze in the 97kg freestyle.
Bajrang, who had an otherwise fruitful day, faltered at the last hurdle as he proved no match to his Iranian opponent Masoud Esmaeilpour in the final and went down tamely 0-11 to be content with a second-place finish.
En route to the final, Bajrang had first defeated Noriyuki Takatsuka of Japan 7-4 in the quarterfinals and then followed it up with another excellent show in the last four stage, where he got the better of Nazmomdakh Lhamgarmaa of Mongolia 7-1.
In 97kg men’s freestyle, Kadian earned the bronze medal by beating Alihan Djumaev of Kazakhstan by criteria, 5-5.
After being beaten in the quarterfinals, Kadian managed to beat Chanuk Yoon of Korea 7-0 in the repechage round to enter the bronze medal round.
However, in 70kg and 74kg men’s freestyle, both the Indians in the fray failed to make the podium.
Amit Kumar Dhakar lost out on a podium finish after losing 3-6 to Japan’s Ken Hosaka in the bronze medal play-off in the 70kg freestyle. He had earlier thrashed Korea’s Man ho Oh 7-0 in the quarterfinals before losing to Somirsho Vokhidov of Tajikistan 3-5 in the semifinals.
In the 74kg men’s freestyle, Praveen Rana lost 9-10 to Inkoentiev Inokentiev of Kyrgyzstan in the quarterfinals.
Rana had earlier in the day defeated Baba Ovezgeldyev of Turkmenistan by injury default, 11-2.
In 48kg women’s freestyle, India’s Vinesh lost to Korean Yuimi Lee 6-9 in the bronze medal play-off bout. In the repechage, Vinesh had outplayed Hsuan Yeh of Taipei 8-0. (PTI)
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