India’s six Greco-Roman wrestlers produced a flop show as non of them could secure a Paris Olympics quota from the Asian Wrestling Olympic Qualifiers in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on Sunday.
Representation image (Picture Credits - IANS)
India’s six Greco-Roman wrestlers produced a flop show as non of them could secure a Paris Olympics quota from the Asian Wrestling Olympic Qualifiers in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on Sunday.
The Olympic wrestling qualifying tournament follows a bracket system and the two finalists from each weight division obtain quotas for their respective country. There are no gold medal bouts or repechage.
Four wrestlers – Vikas, Sunil Kumar, Nitesh, and Naveen – lost in the quarter-finals
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Sumit and Ashu exited the tournament early, in the qualification rounds.
Asian Games bronze medallist Sunil Kumar was the only Indian who was able to win a bout in Bishkek.
He defeated Japan’s Soh Sakabe 5-1 in the qualification round of the 87kg weight category.
However, Sunil went down 4-2 against Jalgasbay Berdimuratov of Uzbekistan, the reigning Asian Games champion, in his last-eight bout.
Vikas suffered a 7-0 loss to Rui Liu of Peo China in the 77kg weight class while Nitesh’s campaign in the 97kg division came to an end in the quarter-finals at the hands of Uzur Dzhuzupbekov of Kyrgyzstan, a former Asian champion.
In the 130kg weight class, Naveen suffered a 9-1 defeat to Seungchan Lee of Korea.
India’s men freestyle wrestlers also returned empty-handed from this Qualifiers . Aman Sehrawat fell just one win short of securing a quota.
However, women wrestlers found success on Saturday with Vinesh Phogat (50kg), Anshu Malik (57kg) and Reetika Hooda (76kg) securing Paris 2024 quotas.
So far, India have obtained four quotas in wrestling for the Paris 2024 Olympics and all of them have come in women’s wrestling.
Antim Panghal secured the other, in women’s 53kg, after winning bronze at the World Championships last year.
The continental qualifier, which concluded on Sunday, was the penultimate opportunity for Indian wrestlers to secure a quota for the upcoming Summer Games. T
The World Qualification Tournament in Turkey, scheduled in May, will be the final wrestling qualifier for Paris Games
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