Asian Wrestling: Harpreet Bags Silver, India Finish With 16 Medals

Harpreet bags silver, Gyanender wins bronze as India finish with 16 medals at Asian Wrestling

Harpreet though failed to clinch the top spot as he went down in the title clash to Iran’s Saeid Morad Abdvali 0-8.

(Photo Courtesy: Facebook/unitedworldwrestling)

India wrapped up their campaign at the Asian Wrestling Championships on a resounding note with 16 medals after Greco-Roman grapplers added a silver and a bronze on the concluding day in Xi’an on Sunday, 28 April.

Harpreet Singh settled for a silver in 82kg while Gyanender won a bronze in 60kg on the final day of competitions.

India's overall tally of 16 medals included eight – one gold, three silver and four bronze – won by men's freestyle wrestlers, four bronze by women and three silver and one bronze by Greco-Roman wrestlers.

Harpreet put up an impressive performance to storm into the gold medal round, having thrashed Haitao Qian of China 10-1 in the semifinals after handing a 5-1 defeat to Burgo Beishaliev of Kyrgyzstan in his last-eight stage bout.

Harpreet though failed to clinch the top spot as he went down in the title clash to Iran's Saeid Morad Abdvali 0-8.

Earlier, Gyanender did well to defeat Jui Chi Huang of Taipei and bag the third position.

For Gyanender, a quarterfinal round win over Ali Abed Alnaser Ali Abuseif of Jordan 9-1 was followed by a 0-9 defeat against Islomjon Bakhramov of Uzbekistan in the semifinal.

In contrast, Yogesh lost out on a podium finish in 72kg category after being beaten by Ruslan Tsarev of Kyrgyzstan in the third-fourth place bout.

Yogesh had entered the bronze medal round despite losing his qualifying match to Hujun Zhang of China 0-9 as his Chinese opponent made the gold medal round.

However, two other Indians in the fray on Sunday – Ravinder and Hardeep – crashed out early. While Ravinder bowed out in 67kg after losing his qualification bout, Hardeep suffered defeat in 97kg quarterfinal bout.