Grappler Harpreet bags Asian silver
   Date :29-Apr-2019

 
 
 
Xi’an (China):
 
India wrapped up their campaign at the Asian Wrestling Championships on a resounding note with 16 medals after Greco-Roman grapplers added a silver and a bronze on the concluding day here on Sunday. Harpreet Singh settled for a silver in 82kg while Gyanender won a bronze in 60kg on the final day of competitions. India’s overall tally of 16 medals included eight — one gold, three silver and four bronze — won by men’s freestyle wrestlers, four bronze by women and three silver and one bronze by Greco-Roman wrestlers.
 
Harpreet put up an impressive performance to storm into the gold medal round, having thrashed Haitao Qian of China 10-1 in the semifinals after handing a 5-1 defeat to Burgo Beishaliev of Kyrgyzstan in his last-eight stage bout. Harpreet though failed to clinch the top spot as he went down in the title clash to Iran’s Saeid Morad Abdvali 0-8. Earlier, Gyanender did well to defeat Jui Chi Huang of Taipei and bag the third position. For Gyanender, a quarterfinal round win over Ali Abed Alnaser Ali Abuseif of Jordan 9-1 was followed by a 0-9 defeat against Islomjon Bakhramov of Uzbekistan in the semifinal.
 
In contrast, Yogesh lost out on a podium finish in 72kg category after being beaten by Ruslan Tsarev of Kyrgyzstan in the third-fourth place bout. Yogesh had entered the bronze medal round despite losing his qualifying match to Hujun Zhang of China 0-9 as his Chinese opponent made the gold medal round. However, two other Indians in the fray on Sunday -- Ravinder and Hardeep -- crashed out early. While Ravinder bowed out in 67kg after losing his qualification bout, Hardeep suffered defeat in 97kg quarterfinal bout.