Asian Wrestling Championships: India's Vikas wins bronze in Greco-Roman category

Astana (Kazakhstan): Greco-Roman grappler Vikas won a bronze medal to take India's tally to four on the second day of the Asian Wrestling Championships 2023, here.

Vikas defeated China's Jian Tan by 8-0 technical superiority in the men's 72kg Greco-Roman category, within a remarkable time of 1 min 41 secs on Monday.

The Indian started his campaign strongly with an 11-0 technical superiority win over Korea's Ji-yeon Lee in the qualification round. However, he suffered a 6-1 loss to Iran's Sajjad Imentalab in the quarter-finals.

Vikas made the bronze medal bout after Sajjad Imentalab advanced to the final, an olympics.com report said.

Three other Indian wrestlers -- Sumit (60kg), Rohit Dahiya (82kg) and Narinder Cheema (97kg) -- were in contention for the medals. However, all three of them lost in the bronze medal match.

Sumit, who defeated Turkmenistan's Umit Durdyew by 9-0 technical superiority in the qualification, lost 0-10 in the quarter-finals to Kyrgyzstan's world champion Zholaman Sharshenbekov, who went on to win the gold. In the bronze medal match, Sumit lost 6-14 to Japan's Maito Kawana.

Meanwhile, Rohit Dahiya lost 5-1 to Iran's Alireza Mohmadi in the bronze medal match. Rohit had defeated Singapore Aryan Azman 12-4 in the first round, but lost 1-7 to eventual gold medallist Akylbek Talantbekov of Kyrgyzstan in the next.

In the 97kg category, Narinder Cheema reached the semi-finals where he lost 0-9 to Kyrgyzstan's Uzur Dzhuzupbekov. In the bronze medal match, Narinder suffered a 4-1 defeat to Kazakhstan's Olzhas Syrlybay.

India finished the Greco-Roman campaign with four medals. On Sunday, Rupin bagged a silver in the 55kg category while Neeraj (63kg) and Sunil Kumar (87kg) claimed bronze medals.