Asian Wrestling Championships: India wins one silver and two bronze medals on the very first day

On the very first day of the Senior Asian Wrestling Championships, which started in Astana, Kazakhstan on Sunday, Indian wrestlers won three medals. Young grappler Rupin won silver in 55kg Greco Roman, his first senior-level international medal. While Neeraj (63kg GR) and Sunil Kumar (87kg GR) won bronze medals.

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Meanwhile, Rupin did well in the continental meet of Asian Wrestling Championships. Technical superiority helped him defeat Sardarbek Konushbaev of Kyrgyzstan by a score of 16–7 in the qualification round. The Indian wrestler beat China's Zhang Haifeng 3-1 and Kazakhstan's 6-4 in the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively. Rupin, who is 19 years old, won his first medal on the international senior circuit after losing the championship match 3-1 to reigning U-23 world champion, Iran's Poya Soulat Dad Marz.

On the other hand, Neeraj Chhikara won the bronze medal in the 63kg category by defeating South Korea's Jinseub Song 5-2. Earlier, Niraj Chikara defeated Kyrgyzstan's Dastan Kadyrov 7-6 in the qualification round. After that, he lost to Iran's Imam Hossein Khoon Mohammadi in the quarter-finals with a score of 9-0 technical superiority. After Imam Hossein Khoon Mohammadi, who eventually won the gold medal, advanced to the final, Neeraj entered the Asian Wrestling Championships bronze medal match. Neeraj had given the country a bronze medal in the year 2022 as well.

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In the medal match for the 87kg division, 2020 Asian champion Sunil Kumar also won the bronze medal with a win over Japan's Masato Sumi. Sunil Kumar had earlier defeated Aslamov 9-1 on the technical side. Iranian wrestler Nasser Alizadeh defeated the Indian competitor 7-2 in the semi-finals. Sunil had earlier won a bronze medal in the year 2022. In addition, he had won gold in the Senior Asian Wrestling Championships held in Delhi in the year 2020. At the same time,