Asian C’ships: Akash and Anirudh reach bronze-medal round

BISHKEK (Kyrgyzstan): Indian wrestlers Akash Dahiya and Anirudh Kumar kept themselves in contention for bronze medals at the Asian Championships but three of their team-mates exited the tournament after losing at different stages in their respective categories, here on Friday.

Competing in the nonOlympic 61kg category, Akash began with a close 10-8 win over Sardor Ruzimov from Uzbekistan and followed it up with a comfortable 7-3 victory over Korea’s Sanghyeon Son in the quarterfinal.

However, Kazakhstan’s Assyl Aitakyn proved to be too strong for the Indian in the semifinal and could not score a single point, losing his bout by technical superiority.

He will now fight it out with Mongolia’s Enkhbold Enkhbat.

Yash Tushir (74kg) went out of contention after losing his repechage round by technical superiority to Syrbaz Talgat from Kazakhstan.

Also bowing out early was Sandeep Singh Maan (86kg), who lost his qualification bout 0-5 to Japan’s Tatsuya Shirai.

Vinay (92kg) also fizzled out in the 92kg qualification round, losing his bout by fall to veteran Kazakhstan wrestler Adilet Davlumbayev.

In 125kg, Anirudh Kumar began with a 3-0 win over Pakistan’s Zaman Anwar but was outplayed by Iran’s Amir Hossein Abbas Zare in the quarterfinal, losing by technical superiority.

Since the Iranian reached the final, it kept the door open for Anirudh and now he will fight for bronze against Bahrain’s Shamil Magomed A Sharipov.

India had won three medals on Thursday through Udit (57kg, silver), Abhimanyou (70kg, bronze) and Vicky (97kg, bronze).

Akash Dahiya will now fight it out with Mongolia’s Enkhbold Enkhbat