Harpreet fetches first medal for India

Harpreet Singh fetched the first medal for India on the opening day of the Asian Wrestling Championship when he bagged a bronze in the Greco-Roman 80 kilogram category here on Wednesday.

Harpreet edged out Na Junjie of China 3-2 in the play-off for the bronze medal.

Harpreet made an excellent start to the bout and used his superior physical strength to wrest the upper hand early on. The judges made two passivity calls against the Chinese grappler which earned a point for the Indian.

But the scores were soon levelled when the judges appointed a passivity point against the local wrestler.

The Chinese tried to make a strong start to the second period, pushing Harpreet on to the back foot.

But just when it seemed that Na had managed to take the upper hand, the Indian turned the tables with a lightning quick take which earned him two points.

Harpreet dominated proceedings after that and although the Chinese tried hard to make a comeback, the Indian kept him at bay.

Ramin Soltanmorad of Iran clinched the gold by defeating Kim Junehyoung of South Korea 3-1 in the final.

In the other bronze medal play-off in the category, Samat Shirdakov of Kyrgyzstan and Danyal Gajiyev of Kazakhstan fought to a 2-2 stalemate. But Shirdakov was adjudged the winner had he was the last to score.

Earlier, Harpreet had made a promising start to his campaign with a hard fought 2-1 victory over Maeta Yuya of Japan in the qualification round.

But he ran into trouble in the quarter-finals as he was totally outclassed by the vastly superior technique and speed of Kim Junehyoung of South Korea and succumbed to a 0-8 defeat.

However, Harpreet got a chance to grapple for the bronze when Kim defeated Na 2-1 in the semi-finals to enter the summit clash.