Haryana wrestler Sunil Kumar (87 kg category) has made a brilliant start in the Asian Wrestling Championship which started at the KD Jadhav Stadium on Tuesday. Sunil reached the final of the championship for the second time in a row, beating Azat Salidinov of Kyrgyzstan unilaterally 5–0. India has won the gold medal in Greco Roman after 27 years. Earlier in 1993, Pappu Yadav got gold in Asian Championship.
For Sunil, reaching the finals was nothing short of a thrill. In the semi-finals, Sunil was trailing Azmat Kulibayev of Kazakhstan 1-8. It was the same Ajmat against whom Sunil clinched the final in the semi-finals of the last Asian Championship held in China. There was one minute 13 seconds left in the match. Sunil's defeat was supposed to be decided, but the 21-year-old wrestler defeated Ajmat once again by knocking 11 consecutive points. Earlier, Sunil defeated Takahiro of Japan in the opening round.
At the same time, Arjun (55 kg category) of Karnataka, playing his first senior tournament at the international level, has succeeded in winning the bronze medal. After being included in the national camp for the first time, Arjun defeated Korean wrestler Dong Yuk Wan in the 55 weight category of Greco Roman, 1–4, in the bronze medal match after trailing 1–4. At the same time, Indian wrestler Mehar Singh lost to Kimroma of Kyrgyzstan in the 130 weight category.
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