Ashu wins bronze in Zagreb, other wrestlers disappoint

Asian Championships bronze medalist Ashu won a bronze medal in 67kg for India in the Greco-Roman category on the concluding day of the Zagreb Open ranking series here on Sunday. The 23-year-old wrestler added a second bronze to India’s tally by defeating Lithuania’s Adomas Grigliaunas 5-0. In the freestyle category, U-23 world champion wrestler Aman Sehrawat won a bronze in the men’s 57kg on the opening day of the competition. Ashu was thrashed 9-0 by Reza Mahdi Abbasi of Iran in the qualification round, he performed brilliantly in the repechage round.

He thrashed Hungary’s Adam Foylec 8–0 before thrashing Norway’s Howard Jørgensen 9–0 to seal his place in the bronze medal round. The Indian wrestler scored three points in the first period and two in the second period after which all the judges declared him ‘Win by Decision’. In the Greco-Roman category, however, Sagar (63kg) lost in the repechage round to Austria’s Aker Sasmid Al Obaidi. He got this opportunity when his quarter-final opponent Arif Hossein Khoun Mohammadi of Iran reached the final.

In other bouts on Sunday, Asian Championship bronze medalist Sushma Shokeen lost in the quarterfinals of the women’s 53kg category. She was defeated by Birmingham Commonwealth Games silver medalist Samantha Stewart of Canada. The run of disappointment for India continued in the women’s 72kg as well. Wrestler Ritika could not make it to the semi-finals through the round-robin format while Kiran (76kg) also failed to advance. Greco-Roman wrestlers Manjeet (55kg), Gyanendra (60kg), Ankit Gulia (72kg) and Narinder Cheema (97kg) also returned empty-handed from the event. All of them failed to qualify for the medal stage in their respective weight categories.

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