After Anirudh Kumar won the solitary bronze medal on the last day of the Asian Wrestling Championships 2023 held in Astana, Kazakhstan, India finished the event with a total of 14 medals on Friday. In the match against Uzbekistan’s Sardorbek Kholmatov in the 125kg men’s freestyle category, Anirudh won clearly by technical superiority (12-2) to achieve his bronze medal, as per Olympic.com.
Indian wrestlers finished their stint with one gold, three silvers, and 10 bronze. Aman Sehrawat in the category of men’s 57kg freestyle won the gold for the country, while Rupin (Greco-Roman 55kg), Antim Panghal (women’s 53kg freestyle), and Nisha Dahiya (women’s 68 kg freestyle) won three silvers in their respective categories. Deepak Mirka (men’s 79kg freestyle), Neeraj Chikara (Greco-Roman 63kg), Sunil Kumar (Greco-Roman 87kg), Vikas (Greco-Roman 72kg), Anshu Malik (women’s 57kg freestyle), Sonam Malik (women’s 62kg freestyle), Manisha (women’s 65kg freestyle), Reetika Hooda (women’s 72kg freestyle) and Priya (women’s 76 kg freestyle) are the other wrestlers who have won bronze in the Asian Wrestling Championships.
Earlier, Anirudh had beaten Japan’s Taiki Yamamoto by 8-2 in the qualification round. However, he lost his quarterfinals battle against 125-kg men’s freestyle category finalist Yusup Batirmurzaev of Kazakhstan by 2-0. Apart from Anirudh, no other wrestler made it to the medal bout on the final day of the Asian Wrestling Championships.
Commonwealth Games medalist Deepak Punia had a disappointing performance as he finished his campaign empty-handed in the Asian Wrestling Championships; he lost to Bahrain’s Magomed Sharipov in the 92kg freestyle quarter-finals. In the 74kg category, Yash Tushir lost in the qualification round to Japan’s Kirin Kinoshita, but there was hope as he had made it to the playoff round; he lost, however, by a score of 11-1 to Korea’s Gong Byung-min. Pankaj Malik, playing in the 61kg category, was defeated in the quarterfinals, while Jonty Kumar bowed out in the 86kg freestyle quarterfinals.