Asian C'ships: Indian wrestlers take two bronze on 2nd day

Anil Kumar and Jyoti bagged a bronze each in their respective categories as India clinched two medals on the second day of the Asian Wrestling Championship here on Thursday.

Anil staged a strong comeback to defeat Muhammadali Shamsiddinov of Uzbekistan 7-6 in a bitterly contested bronze medal play-off in the men's Greco-Roman 85 kilogram category.

Jyoti also finished on the podium in women's 75 kilogram event.

India's tally in the tournament now stands at three bronze medals.

Harpreet Singh had claimed the first medal for India on the opening day of the tournament on Wednesday when he bagged a bronze in the Greco-Roman 80 kilogram category.

Jyoti had started well with a comprehensive 5-1 win over Seoyeon Jeong of South Korea 5-1 in the quarter-finals.

But she ran into trouble in the semi-finals and suffered a 0-10 thrashing at the hands of Masako Furuichi of Japan.

But she still finished on the podium without having to compete the in the bronze medal play-off as she had no other wrestler in her part of the draw.

Gulmaral Yerkebayeva of Kazakhstan defeated Urtnasan Ocjir of Mongolia by fall to bag the other bronze medal in the category.

Paliha of China defeated Masako 8-1 in the final to clinch the gold medal.

The bronze medal play-off in the Greco-Roman 85 kilogram category got off to a fast paced start with both wrestlers trying to go on the attack.

Anil was clearly the stronger of the two although Shamsiddinov was technically the better wrestler. The Indian looked to be on the attack for most of the contest and caused problems for the Uzbek with his height advantage and superior strength.

Shamsiddinov however, fought well on the counter thanks to his better technique and almost pulled off a win over his stronger opponent. The Uzbek in fact, came closing to pinning Anil on several occasions but the India used his raw power to wriggle out of danger every time.

Anil took a 1-0 lead in the opening round when a passivity point was awarded against the Uzbek.

But the Uzbek made a strong comeback with a takedown to take the lead at 2-1. He then held on to the lead and went into the break with a one point advantage.

Shamsiddinov seized the initiative immediately after the restart, taking five points with a couple of takedowns to increase his lead to 6-1.

But despite being almost down and out, Anil continued to to go on the offensive and his efforts were rewarded as he eventually managed to make a superb comeback.

Perhaps the big lead had made Shamsiddinov a bit complacent which prompted the judges to award a passivity point against him.

That was the spark that Anil needed to start his turnaround.

The Indian bagged three points with a takedown which reduced the deficit to 5-6. With time running out, he came up with a two-point tackle to take the lead and fought off a desperate effort from the Uzbek in the final seconds to ensure victory.

Earlier, Anil had suffered a comprehensive 0-7 loss to eventual silver medallist Atsushi Matsumoto of Japan. The Japanese was far superior in terms of technique and easily fended off Anil's moves.

Hossein Ahmad continued Iran's domination of the Greco-Roman categories with a 4-2 win over Matsumoto in the final.

Fei Peng of China got the other bronze medal in the division by defeating Azamat Kustubayev of Kazakhstan 2-1.

Meanwhile, Deepak lost out on a bronze in the Greco-Roman 71 kilogram event as he lost 1-8 to Nurgazy Asangulov of Kazakhstan in the paly-off.

In the women's 63 kilogram event, Ritu Malik lost to Hang Jinyoung of South Korea in the bronze medal play-off.

The bout had finished 1-1 but the Korean was adjudge the winner since she was the last to score.

Gyanender crashed out in the qualiciation stage of the Greco-Roman 59 kilogram category following a 1-5 loss to Kaly Sulaimanov of Kyrgyzstan.

--IANS

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