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The Indian greco-roman wrestlers put up a listless performance in the Incheon Asian Games at the Dowon Gymnasium. Ravinder Singh – one of the most experienced grapplers in the team – struggled to hold his own against Kazakhstan’s Kebispayev Almat. The 32-year-old wrestler, who had won the bronze medal at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, put up a below par performance against an opponent five years his junior and finished on the losing side in the 59-kg category.
Krishankant Yadav was the second Indian to take the mat and like Ravinder, he, too, failed to make an impression against Korea’s Jung Jihyun in the 71-kg category. The Indian Army grappler found the going tough against Jung, who backed by a robust home crowd, raised his game by several notches to book his semifinal berth.
Another Indian Harpreet Singh put up a doughty showing against Uzbeskitan’s Saldadze Besiki in the quarterfinals of the 80-kg category. The burly Indian started on a strong note and even suffered a cut near his eye, but held firm, but in the end the superiority of Saldadze came to the fore as he won the day.
All the three Indian wrestlers would now hope to push for at least a bronze medal by playing the repechage round provided their opponents (they lost to) go on to make it to the final.
Earlier on Monday, the Indian freestyle men’s wrestling contingent picked up its third medal at the Asian Games as Narsingh Yadav bagged a bronze medal in the 74-kg category defeating Japan’s Shimada Daisuke. Bajrang Kumar settled for the silver losing to Iran’s Esmaeilpoorjouybari Masoud in the final of the freestyle 61-kg category. Pawan Kumar lost in the repechage round of the freestyle 86-kg category losing to China’s Zhang Feng.
Yogeshwar Dutt had earlier given the Indian wrestling camp plenty to rejoice about bagging the country’s first Asian Games gold medal after a hiatus of 28 years. S Kadian crashed out in the bronze medal play-off round in the 97-kg category, while Amit Kumar and Praveen Rana bowed out in their opening rounds. Among the Indian women, Vinesh and Geetika Jhakar clinched bronze medals in the 48-kg and 63-kg respectively. Babita Kumar lost in the bronze medal play-off round in the 55-kg category, while Jyoti lost in the quarterfinals of the women’s 75-kg category.
