ANIL, JYOTI ADD TWO BRONZE TO HOSTS’ TALLY

India picked up two bronze on Day Two of the Asian Wrestling Championship here on Thursday, with Anil Kumar and Jyoti prevailing in contrasting fashion in their respective weight categories.

Anil, who faced Uzbekistan’s Muhammadali Shamsiddinov in the Greco-Roman 85kg category, posted a comefrom-behind 7-6 victory in an exciting bout to grab the bronze.

Jyoti clinched the bronze in the women’s 75kg despite losing her semi-final bout to Japan’s Masako Furuichi 0-10. The home girl had no opponent to fight in the repechage round owing to fewer number of wrestlers in her weight category.

Jyoti qualified for the medal round after the Japanese girl made it to the gold medal round.

Anil, on the other hand, showed strong skills and technique to pick up India’s third medal. The hosts had opened their account on Thursday when Harpreet Singh (80kg) had grabbed a bronze.

Trailing 1-6 and being pinned down by his Uzbekistan opponent in the bronze medal bout, Anil did extremely well to not just release himself from Shamsiddinov’s grip but also managed to take him down to earn two points.

He managed to narrow the gap to 3-6 and only became better from here on.

The 29-year-old Indian, who pinned down the Uzbek grappler twice to bag four successive points, wrapped up the match in style winning by just one point.

This was the first time Anil was competing in an Asian Championship.

Ritu Phogat (63kg) fought hard in the bronze medal play-off but missed out on a podium finish, going down 1-1 to Jinyoung Hang of Korea.