ASTANA: Rupin won a silver medal in the 55kg division on Sunday to highlight the Indian Greco-Roman challenge on the opening day of the Asian Wrestling Championships 2023 in Astana, Kazakhstan.
At the continental meet, Rupin ran well. Technical superiority helped him defeat Kyrgyzstan’s Sardarbek Konushbaev in the qualification round by a score of 16-7. The Indian wrestler then defeated China’s Haifeng Zhang 3-1 and Kazakhstan’s Amangali Bekbolatov 6-4 in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively.
Rupin, who is 19 years old, finished with his first medal on the international senior circuit after losing the championship match 3-1 to Iran’s Pouya Dadmarz, the current U-23 world champion, as per Olympics.com
During the five Greco-Roman competitions held that day, India took home three medals.
Neeraj Chhikara defeated Jinseub Song of Korea 5-2 to claim bronze in the 63 kg category. Before to that, Neeraj Chhikara lost to Iran’s Iman Hossein Khoon Mohammadi with a score of 9-0 technical superiority in the quarterfinals after defeating Kyrgyzstan’s Dastan Kadyrov 7-6 in the qualification round.
After Iman Hossein Khoon Mohammadi, who ultimately won the gold medal, advanced to the final, Neeraj entered the bronze medal match.
In the medal match for the 87kg division, Sunil Kumar, the 2020 Asian champion, triumphed over Masato Sumi of Japan to earn a bronze medal as well. Sunil Kumar had earlier outclassed Tajik Saidislomiddin Aslamov 9-1 on the technical side. The Iranian wrestler Naser Alizadeh defeated the Indian competitor 7-2 in the semifinals.
In the 77kg, Sajan Bhanwala did not stand out. In the qualification round, he was defeated 3-1 by Amin Yavar Kaviyaninejad of Iran. In the repechage round, he was defeated 4-1 by Rui Liu of China.
The 130kg competitor Naveen Sevlia was eliminated in the first round after losing to Temurbek Nasimov of Uzbekistan 5-3.
On Monday, competition will take place in the final five Greco-Roman weight divisions. Later in the week, the men’s and women’s freestyle competitions will take place.
Five medals, all bronze, were won by Indian Greco-Roman wrestlers at the 2022 Asian Championships in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. (ANI)