Sunil wins gold in Asian Wrestling C'ships, beaks 27-year wait for India in Greco-Roman

Sunil Kumar on Tuesday overpowered Azat Salidinov of Kyrgyzstan 5-0 in the 87kg summit bout to win India's first Greco-Roman gold medal in Asian Wrestling Championships in 27 years.

Entering the gold medal bout after a come-from-behind victory in the semifinal, Kumar comprehensively defeated his opponent in the final of 87kg category at the KD Jadhav Indoor Stadium here.

Earlier, Kumar was down 1-8 in his semifinal bout against his Kazakh opponent Azamat Kustubayev but made a great comeback, grabbing 11 points on the trot to win the bout at 12-8.

In 2019 also, Kumar had made it to the final and ended with a silver medal.

 

Another Indian, Arjun Halakurki won a bronze in Greco-Roman 55kg, his first medal at his first senior international event.

Arjun was leading 7-1 against Iran's Naserpour but lost 7-8 in the semifinal.