Anil, Jyoti Win Bronze Medals on Day 2 of Asian Wrestling C’ship

Anil won the bout despite trailing 1-6 at one point.

Anil Kumar and Jyoti bagged India two bronze medals with contrasting performances in their respective weight categories on the second day of the Asian Wrestling Championship in New Delhi.

While Anil registered a thrilling come-from-behind 7-6 victory over Uzbekistan's Muhammadali Shamsiddinov to clinch the bronze medal in the Greco-Roman 85kg category, Jyoti (women's 75kg) won the bronze after she lost in the semifinal to Japan's Masako Furuichi, as the Japanese girl made it to the gold medal round.

85 kg Bronze

Having entered the bronze medal play-off after his opponent, who defeated him in the quarterfinal match, made the gold medal round, Anil showed fabulous skills and technique to finish third.

Lagging behind 1-6 and being pinned down by his Uzbekistan rival during the bronze medal bout, Anil did well to not just release himself from his opponent's grip but also managed to take him down to earn two points.

With those two points he narrowed down the gap to 3-6.

After that there was hardly any looking back for the 29-year- old Indian, who pinned down the Uzbek grappler twice to bag four successive points and in the end wrapped up the match in style by a solitary point.

This was the first time Anil was competing in the Asian Championship and he managed to win a medal in his maiden attempt.

I just wanted to come out of that position when I was down on the mat and with the help of my coaches who were guiding me, I could turn the table around. I am really very happy and proud to give my country a medal. The crowd really motivated me to turn the tide in my favour. It was really nice to get the home support.

Anil Kumar

• Earlier, Jyoti, despite losing her semifinal bout to Furuichi 0-10, could bag the bronze medal as there were less number of wrestlers in her weight division and had no opponent to fight in the repechage round. She had earlier won the qualification round by outplaying Seoyeon Jeong of Korea 5-1.
• Ritu fought hard in the bronze medal play-off match in women's 63kg division but missed out on the podium by a whisker, going down 1-1 against Jinyoung Hang of Korea.
• In Greco-Roman 71kg, Deepak also failed to get another bronze for the country as he went down to Nurgazy Asangulov of Kyrgyzstan 1-8 in a one-sided contest.
• The other Greco-Roman Indian wrestler in the fray today, Gyanender (59kg) bowed out of the competition after losing his bout early. Gyanender lost in the qualification round itself when he was comprehensively beaten by Kaly Sulaimanov of Kazakhstan 1-5.