Anil Kumar brought the Indian camp some cheer with the 85kg Greco-Roman bronze, on the second day of the Asian Wrestling Championship at the K.D. Jadhav arena of the Indira Gandhi Stadium Complex here on Thursday.
The 29-year-old Air Force grappler eluded Uzbek Muhammadali Shamsiddinov’s grasp twice from close to getting pinned, and turned around a 1-6 deficit to win 7-6.
Deftly parrying his opponent’s attempts to bring him down, Anil notched up points swiftly in the last two minutes to turn the tide, buoyed by the vociferous cheering from the sparse crowd.
After going down 7-0 to eventual silver medallist Atsushi Matsumoto of Japan in the quarterfinals, this was a fine recovery indeed from Anil.
India’s other medal of the day was confirmed in the morning session, as Jyothi sealed the women’s 75kg bronze. She won the preliminary bout against Korea’s Seoyeon Jeong 5-1. She lost her semifinal bout against Masako Furuichi of Japan, but had none to fight in the repechage in a small field of seven.
In the women’s 63kg, Ritu lost the bronze medal bout against Jinyoung Hang of Korea. In an intense battle where both showed strong defence, Ritu led 4-1 at one stage but had two points revoked at the Korean’s protest.
Jinyoung then went on to win the final point in the fifth minute, and that proved decisive.
Ritu had beaten Min-Wen Hou of Chinese Taipei 5-4 in the quarterfinals before losing 12-2 to Battsetseng Soronzonbold of Mongolia, the eventual gold medallist.
In the men’s 71kg, Deepak lost 8-0 by technical fall to Kyrgyzstan’s Nungazy Asangulov in the bout for bronze; he had lost 3-1 to eventual medallist Afshin Nemat Byabangard of Iran in the quarterfinals.
Gyanender lost 5-1 to Kaly Sulaimanov of Kyrgyzstan in the 59 kg section. He was the only Indian in the day, not to give himself a chance to fight for a medal.
After two days of the competition, India now tallies three bronze medals.
Friday will be of special interest as Sakshi Malik takes the mat in the women’s 60kg section.
