Asian Wrestling Championships: Jitender Kumar To Wrestle For Gold, Rahul And Deepak Set For Bronze Medal Bouts

Hosts India can add to its swelling medal tally on the final day of the Asian Wrestling Championships with four of Indian grapplers set to wrestle for medals

New Delhi: A day after four Indian wrestlers including Bajrang Punia won medals at the Asian Wrestling Championships at the KD Jadhav Hall, three Indian grapplers will be vying for a medal tonight on the final day of the showpiece event in the national capital.  Jitender Kumar will be the sole representation for Team India to contest for a Gold Medal, while Rahul Aware and Deepak Punia will eye for Bronze. Jitender Kumar (74Kg) will try to seal his name on the yellow metal tonight after having made it through the qualifiers, defeating Thai opponent Chamnanjan Parinya 14-5 before overcoming Iran’s Hosseinkhani Mostafa Mohabbali 2-2 in the quarter-finals. He prevailed over Zandanbud Sumiyabazar of Mongolia in the semi-final 2-1 to set up his Gold medal face off against 2018 Asian Games Silver medalist Kaisanov Daniyar of Kazakhstan. 2018 Commonwealth Games Gold medalist and 2019 Asian and World Bronze medalist, Rahul Aware (61Kg) defeated Uzbekistan’s Turobov Jahongirmirza by a scoreline of 11-9 in the quarterfinals and lost to Zholdoshbekov Ulukbek of Kyrgyzstan 5-3 in the semifinal bout. Rahul will face Iran’s Dastan Majid Almas for the Bronze medal later today. Deepak Punia (86Kg) is set to challenge Iraq’s Al Obaidi Issa Abdulsalam Abdulwahhab for the Bronze medal after losing his semifinal bout against Japanese grappler Yamada Shutaro 4-1. In the 92kg category, India’s Someveer lost to Uzbekistan’s Saparniyazov Ajiniyaz 0-10 while Satender (125Kg) lost to Tajik Anakulov Farkhod 12-1 in the repechage round today. Indian wrestlers in action on day 6 of Asian Championships 2020 61Kg- Semifinal- Ulukbek ZHOLDOSHBEKOV (KGZ) df. Rahul Balasaheb AWARE (IND) 5-3 74Kg- Semifinal- Jitender JITENDER (IND) df. Sumiyabazar ZANDANBUD (MGL) 2-1 86Kg- Semifinal- Shutaro YAMADA (JPN) df. Deepak PUNIA (IND) 4-1 92Kg- Quaterfinal- Ajiniyaz SAPARNIYAZOV (UZB) df. Somveer SOMVEER (IND) 10-0 125Kg- Repechage- Farkhod ANAKULOV (TJK) df. Satender SATENDER (IND) 12-1