Asian Wrestling Championships 2020: Sunil Kumar Wins Gold In 87-kg Greco Roman Category

Sunil Kumar beat Azat Salidinov in the gold medal match to hang the yellow medal around his neck, much to the delight of the Indian fans at the Asian Wrestling Championships

Sunil Kumar (Image Credit: Wrestling Federation of India

New Delhi: Sunil Kumar bagged the first medal and that too a gold to open hosts India's medal account in the Asian Wrestling Championships being held at New Delhi. The seasoned grappler beat Azat Salidinov in the gold medal match to hang the yellow medal around his neck, much to the delight of the Indian fans. Sunil's gold medal was India's first in Greco -Roman in over 27 years as Pappu Yadav was the last wrestler to bag the yellow medal in this discipline way back in 1993. The Greeco Roman wrestler had reached the final of the 87kg category with a brilliant come-from-behind victory over Azamat Kustubayev. Kumar was down 1-8 in his semi-final bout against his Kazakh opponent but made a great comeback, winning 11 points on the trot to finish the bout at 12-8. In 2019 also, Kumar had made it to the final and ended with a silver medal. Earlier in the day, Arjun Halakurki (55kg) lost his semi-final bout from a winning position. He lost 7-8 against Iran's Pouya Mohammad Naserpour. Arjun will now be up against Korea's Donghyeok Won in the bronze medal playoff. Mehar Singh also lost his last four bout.

Up against Minseok Kim of Korea, Mehar went down tamely to the Korean by a 1-9 margin. Mehar had made the Indian team at the last minute. Just three days before the tournament, India's number one in 130 kg, Naveen, pulled out of the event due to injury. Mehar replaced Naveen and won his opening bout against Daler Rakhmatov of Uzbekistan. In the first qualification bout of the day, Sajan, who was one of India's big medal hopes lost in a disappointing manner. He was pitted against under-23 Asian champion Renat Iliazuulu of Kyrgyzstan in the first round. The Indian wrestler could not match the initial onslaught of Iliazuulu and lost 6-9. Sachin Rana (63kg) faced a massive defeat against Elmurat Tasmuradov by a margin of 8-0. He was then pitted against Yernur Fidakhmetov of Kazakhstan where he could not put up much of a challenge and went down 6-3 in his Repechage bout.