Practising defence from floor place within the final three weeks with high wrestlers labored wonders for Sunil Kumar, who gained India’s first Greco Roman medal on the Asian Video games in 13 years, bagging a bronze within the 87kg class whilst three of his compatriots exited the match on Wednesday. Up towards Kyrgyzstan’s Atabek Azisbekov, the Indian wrestler fought a strategic bout by which twice he defended properly from ‘par terre’ place, denying his opponent a scoring alternative from the bottom place for a 2-1 win. He saved sliding in circles on his proper, not letting Azisbekov get a grip to carry him from floor. It was Azisbekov, who received on board first with a passivity level within the first interval. Sunil levelled the rating on Azisbekov’s passivity as a significant a part of the bronze play-off was shorn of attacking strikes. (Asian Video games Medals Tally)
The Indian camp additionally efficiently challenged the referee’s two-point choice given in favour of Azisbekov, who had managed to throw Sunil out however was not in command of the push-out transfer.
Sunil was already forward on standards and received the decisive level in the direction of the top when his rival misplaced a problem.
India had gained two medals in Greco Roman within the Guangzhou version with Ravinder Singh (60kg) and Sunil Kumar Rana (66kg) profitable a bronze every in 2010.
“The defence from the bottom place is the most important weak spot in India’s Greco Roman wrestlers. We particularly labored on this facet throughout our 18-day coaching stint in Azerbaijan, the place we made Sunil follow with high wrestlers together with the world champion in his class,” Manoj Dhankar, India’s Greco Roman coach at Asian Video games informed PTI.
“We had 5 world champions there. On days, we’d ask Sunil to follow solely defence from floor place. He would follow defence from ‘par terre’ at-least 50 occasions a day. It labored properly right here,” Dhankar, who himself is an Asian Gamed medallist, added.
India’s chief coach Hargobind Singh mentioned the draw was such that they anticipated a medal from Sunil.
“We knew will probably be tough to beat Iran. Sunil was anticipated to beat the Kyrgyzstan wrestler since he doesn’t take pleasure in good outcomes towards the Indians. He has misplaced twice to Harpreet Singh previously,” mentioned Singh.
Sunil had begun with a detailed 4-3 win over China’s Fei Ping and adopted that up with a technical superiority victory over Tajikistan’s Sukhrob Abdulkhaev, profitable the quarterfinal within the first interval itself.
The 2020 Asian champion then ran into formidable reigning Asian champion Naser Alizadeh from Iran and misplaced 1-4 to exit of the gold medal race.
The opposite Indians in rivalry — Gyanender (60kg), Neeraj (67kg) and Vikas (77kg) — couldn’t even win a single spherical.
Gyanender misplaced his opening bout 1-7 to Iran’s Meysam Dalkhani, whereas Neeraj misplaced 3-5 to Uzbekistan’s Makhmud Bakhshilloev.
Vikas misplaced his bout by technical superiority to China’s Rui Liu.
On Thursday, the 2 remaining Indian Greco Roman wrestlers — Narinder Cheema (97kg) and Naveen (130kg) — will current their problem.
The ladies’s competitors can even start on Thursday and fast-rising Antim Panghal (53kg) will likely be in motion together with the gifted Pooja Gehlot (50kg) and Mansi Ahlawat (57kg).
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