The opening day of the New Delhi bound Asian Wrestling Championships on Tuesday bore some fruit for India’s Arjun Halakurki as he settled for bronze and won the first medal for India in the tournament. But all did not pan out well for 130kg category wrestler Meher Singh.
While Arjun defeated Dongheyok Won of South Korea 7-4 in the 55kg Greco Roman competition, Meher fell prey to Roman Kim of Kazakhstan 3-2 in the 130kg bronze bout. Meher was trailing his rival initially and he tried coming back into the game but failed as time ran out.
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Earlier in the day, Meher, a last minute addition to the Indian team, showed some hope after cruising through the quarterfinal round, but lost to South Korea’s Minseok Kim 9-1 in the semi-final round.
On the other hand, Halakurki made a fruitful rally, after trailing his Korean 1-4 at one stage. The win come as a big consolation for Arjun to lift the gloom of his loss in the semi-final stage. “I lost in the semi-finals as I got a little greedy for points. However, I am glad to still reach the podium.”
India had a disappointing start to the day with Sajan Bhanwal, one of the biggest bet, losing out in the opening round against Under 23 Asian Champion of 2019 Renat Iliazuulu of Kyrgyzstan in the 77kg competition.
The Indian wrestler could not match the initial onslaught of Iliazuulu and lost out 6-9. Sajan who has won multiple medals for India at the age group events and recently won the Rome Ranking Series bronze was tipped to win medal at the Asian Championships as well. But Renat’s power moves in the first minute shattered his hopes and he was down 0-7. Indian tried making a comeback in the later stages and reduced the deficit to 6-7 but Renat finally prevailed 9-6 to make it to the last 8.
In the last Asian Championships in China, India had bagged one bronze and three Silver medals in the Greco-Roman competition.
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Asian Wrestling Champions 2020 Full Schedule, India squad, Where to watch live: All You Need to Know
