Rana, Sharma in contention for bronze medals

India's Sunil Kumar Rana and Gaurav Sharma placed themselves in contention for bronze medals in the 66kg and 55kg, respectively, as the country started its campaign in the Senior Asian Wrestling Championship on a mixed note here today.
Rana, who got a bye in the first round, defeated China's Gaoquan Zhang 2-1 1-1 to reach the semifinal of the Greco Roman category.
In the semi-final however, Ji-Hun Kim of Korea proved too much for the local lad, who comprehensively defeated him 7-0 4-0.
By virtue of being a semifinal loser, Rana will take on Kazakhstan's Yerbol Konyratov, who won his repechage round to set up a bronze medal bout.

In the 55kg category, India's Gaurav Sharma, lost his quarterfinal bout against Korea's Gyu-Jin Choi 2-4 0-2. The Korean, though, gave the Indian a lifeline to pursue for a bronze through repechage.
In the first contest, Sharma got the first point by executing a takedown on his Kazakhstani opponent, Zhanserik Sarsenbiyev.

However, the Kazakh levelled the proceedings instantly cutting short the excitement of the Indian coaches. The two-first period finished 1-1.
Sharma came back strongly in the second period to surprise his opponent twice in the first minute before taking the period 2-0.
He will take on North Korea's Won Chol Yun who lost to Gyu-Jin in the semi-final.

Earlier, Ravinder Singh (60kg) lost to Korea's Douk Gil 0-3 1-0 0-1 to bow of the championship. Naveen, too, lost his opening bout to Iran's Bashir Babajanzadeh in the 120-kg Greco Roman category.