The Hindu : Sport : Sharath wins, Yogeshwar loses

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Sharath wins, Yogeshwar loses

Special Correspondent

— PHOTO: AP

FIERCE BATTLE: India’s Yogeshwar Dutt went down fighting to Kenichi Yumoto of Japan in the 60kg category of men’s freestyle wrestlingon Tuesday.

BEIJING: Sharath Kamal warmed up for the tougher challenges ahead with a 6-11, 12-10, 11-8, 9-11, 11-6, 11-7 victory over Alfredo Carneros of Spain in the first round of the men’s singles table tennis at the Peking University Gymnasium here on Tuesday.

It was a tough contest for Sharath as he had been training and staying with the Spaniard during the club league in Europe.

“It is actually terrible to play each other. We train together every day and we live in the same apartment. So, it is hard for both of us to have to fight against each other,” said Sharath.

Turning point

The Commonwealth Games champion, the 26-year-old Sharath, competing in his second Olympics, said that the turning point of the match was in winning the second game.

“After losing the first game I was a little nervous. I started to play better after the second game,” said Sharath, about his victory over Carneros who had to win a round in the preliminary phase against Adel Masaad of Egypt to earn the right to challenge Sharath in the first round of the main draw.

To meet Chen

Sharath will meet Chen Weixing of Austria in the second round to earn the right to play the top-seeded Wang Hao of China who has been given a direct entry into the round of 32. After the young Neha Aggarwal lost in the preliminary round to Jian Fang Lay of Australia in the women’s event on Monday, it was a relief for the two-member Indian table tennis squad to record a victory.

Meanwhile, in wrestling, Asian champion Yogeshwar Dutt, who had placed fifth in the World championship in Guangzhou two years ago, won his pre-quarterfinals against Baurzhan Orazgaliyev of Kazakhstan 3-1, but lost in the quarterfinals by a similar score to Kenichi Yumoto of Japan.

Sedate start

Competing in the freestyle 60 kg category, at the China Agricultural University Gymnasium, Yogeshwar was able to gather eight technical points after a sedate start against the Kazakh who registered two. Despite expressing his confidence about holding on to the good form and making further progress,

Yogeshwar was unable to earn more than three technical points as against six by his Japanese opponent in the next round.

Two other Indian wrestlers, Sushil Kumar (66 kg) and Rajiv Tomar (120 kg) will attempt to improve on the performance of Yogeshwar Dutt, in the freestyle section.

Sushil had competed in the last Olympics in Athens like Yogeshwar, but Rajiv Tomar is relatively inexperienced.

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