SILVER FOR SUMIT AS INDIA FINISH WITH 10 MEDALS

Sumit picked up a silver in the 125kg category to help India finish their Asian Wrestling Championship campaign here with an impressive haul of 10 medals on Sunday.

India thus finished with 10 medals — a gold, five silver and four bronze — bettering their tally of nine medals in the tournament’s last edition at Bangkok.

In the gold medal bout, Sumit lost 2-6 to Iran’s Yadollah Mohammadkazem Mohebi on the final day of the competition here.

In the men’s freestyle category, Iran defended their title, while Japan and Uzbekistan finished second and third respectively.

After conceding an early point, Sumit gained two quick points by overpowering his formidable opponent and throwing him off the mat.

The home grappler once again managed to grab his opponent’s leg but failed to capitalise on the advantage as Mohebi push Sumit down to clinch two points. He then finished off the opening round with two more to open up a 5-2 lead at the break. The Iranian emerged stronger as the bout progressed, making his way to the gold with a dominant show.

Earlier, Sumit showed his mettle overpowering his opponents in the quarter-final and semi-final bouts.

Said Sumit, “I benefit a lot by training with Sushil (Kumar). He has a great technique and I have learnt a lot under him despite the weight difference in his and my category.”

In the last-eight clash, the heavyweight wrestler defeated Japan’s Taiki Yamamoto 6-3 and later outclassed Farkhod Anakulov of Tajikistan7-2 in the semis.

However, the other Indian freestyle wrestlers failed to get going on the day with Harphool (61kg), Vinod Kumar Omprakash (70kg) and Somveer (86kg) making early exits.

Harphool lost 6-7 to Japan’s Rei Higuchi in the quarter-final round, while Vinod went down to another Japanese Momojiro Nakamura to crash out in the last-eight round.