India Secures a Silver and Two Bronze Medals at the Asian Wrestling Championships

Rupin, Neeraj, and Sunil Kumar made India proud by winning medals in the Asian Wrestling Championship and awed the audience with their performances.

Written by: Arjita Gupta

Edited by: Krutarth Ghosalkar

Last Updated: 2023-04-10 09:22:40

Rupin competed in his first international medal event at the senior level. He went on to win a silver medal in the 55 kg Greco Roman and this meant a great start at the Asian Wrestling Championships for India on Sunday. Rupin, a 19-years old young lad had his second-best finish in the competition while Sunil Kumar and Neeraj won bronze medals in 87 kg and 63 kg GR, respectively. However, Poya Soulat Dad Marz from Iran won against him.

And Rupin was hit with a loss of 1-3 in the final after an outstanding performance in the qualification round given three successive wins leading to it. In the 2019 World Cadet Championships, Rupin won a bronze medal. He had begun his campaign by overcoming Sardarbek of Kyrgyzstan with a 16-7 win in the qualification round.

Rupin then went on to take Amangali Rahimbayev of Kazakhstan and clinched a win in the quarterfinals. He also outshone in the semifinals against Zhang Haifeng of China. Then we know of Neeraj, 16, competing in the 63kg category and defeating Jinseub of South Korea with 5-2 points. This feat won him a bronze medal.

Neeraj took down Dastan Kadyrov from Kyrgyzstan with a score of 7-6. This was during the qualification round. But he could not go past Imam Hossein Khoon Mohammadi of Iran and lost 0-9 that too in the quarterfinal. Then he received a fortunate chance through repechage when Mohammadi reached the final round. And this was the opportunity not to go to waste and Neeraj recovered brilliantly. He beat Song and win a bronze medal for the nation.

On the other hand, in the quarterfinals, Sunil Kumar competed against Aslamov of Tajikistan and began the rampage with a win 9-1. He is also a holder of the gold medal previously in the Asian Championships. Sunil also defeated Masato Sumi of Japan with a score of 4-1 in the 87 kg category and bagged a bronze medal.