Asian Wrestling Championships 2024: India's Udit wins silver; Abhimanyou, Vicky bag bronze

Udit won the silver medal in the men's 57kg category at the Asian Wrestling Championships 2024 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Abhimanyou (men's 70kg) and Vicky (men's 97kg) also won the bronze medals in their respective weight divisions to take India's tally to three medals

India's 19-year-old Udit won the silver medal in the men's 57kg category at the Asian Wrestling Championships 2024 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on Thursday. Abhimanyou (men's 70kg) and Vicky (men's 97kg) also won the bronze medals in their respective weight divisions to take India's tally to three medals after the opening day of the competition.

A total of five Indian wrestlers, all in the men's freestyle division, were in action on Thursday. Rohit (67kg) and Parvinder Singh (79kg) also competed but could not finish on the podium. Udit, the U20 Asian champion, defeated Ebrahim Mahdi Khari of Iran 10-8 in the qualification round, Kyrgyzstan's Almaz Smanbekov 6-4 in the quarter-finals and the Democratic Republic of Korea's Kim Kum Hyok 4-3 in the semi-finals to enter the gold medal bout against Japan's Kento Yumiya.

However, Yumiya eked out a narrow 5-4 win in the final and Udit had to settle for the silver medal. This was the first time since 2019 that India did not win the gold medal in the category. Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Ravi Dahiya won a hat-trick of gold medals in the division from 2020 to 2022 while Aman Sehrawat was the champion in 2023. Meanwhile, Abhimanyou blanked the Republic of Korea's Lee Seungchul 10-0 in the 70kg quarter-finals before losing to Japan's Yoshinosuke Aoyagi in the semi-finals by the same score. Abhimanyou then rallied from a three-point deficit to beat Uzbekistan's Begijon Kuldashev 6-5 in the bronze medal match.

Vicky (97kg) defeated the People's Republic of China's Tuerxunbieke Muheite 9-6 but went down against Kazakhstan's Rizabek Aitmukhan 13-0 by technical superiority in the semi-finals. Vicky beat Kyrgyzstan's Andrei Aronov 10-1 to seal the bronze. Rohit made it to the bronze medal match in the 65kg category but was beaten 5-3 by Japan's Masanosuke Ono. Parvinder Singh (79kg) lost to Japan's Ryunosuke Kamiya 3-0 in the qualification round and bowed out.

Indian wrestlers Akash Dahiya (61kg), Yash Tushir (74kg), Sandeep Mann (86kg), Vinay (92kg) and Anirudh Kumar (125kg) will be in action in the remaining five men's freestyle weight categories on Friday. (ANI)

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