Amit Dhankar clinched a silver while Commonwealth Games champion Rahul Aware won a bronze as Indian male freestyle wrestlers continued their impressive performance at the Asian Wrestling Championships on Wednesday.
Amit, who won gold in the 66kg category in the 2013 edition, settled for a silver in the men’s 74kg freestyle event after losing to Daniyar Kaisanov of Kazakhstan 0-5 in the final.
The 28-year-old Haryana wrestler began with a narrow 2-1 win in the qualification round against Mohammad Ashghar Nokhodilarimi of Iran and then hardly broke a sweat in the quarterfinals as his opponent — Japan’s Yuhi Fujinami — was injured during the bout.
In the semifinals, Amit outplayed Ilgiz Dzhakypbekov of Kyrgyzstan in a 5-0 victory.
Aware, who won a 57kg gold at the CWG in Gold Coast, produced a dominant display to beat Jincheol Kim of Korea 9-2 in the men’s 61kg freestyle bronze medal play-off.
After beating Jahongirmirza Turobov of Uzbekistan via Victory by Technical Superiority (10-0) in the qualification round, the 27-year-old Indian lost to Behnam Eshagh Ehsanpoor of Iran in the quarterfinals in a Victory by Fall verdict.
But since Ehsanpoor reached the final, Aware was up against Siripong Jumpakam of Thailand in the repechage round which he won 12-1 in a Victory by Technical Superiority.
With the silver and the bronze, India’s medal tally increased to 1 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze. Bajrang Punia (65kg) had won a gold on Tuesday while Parveen Rana (79kg) and Satywart Kadian (97kg) had clinched a silver and a bronze respectively.
