(Image source from: timesofindia.indiatimes.com)

Sunil Kumar who is an Indian wrestler beats Azat Salidinov of Kyrgyzstan by 5-0 in the final category of 87 kg bout at the Asian Wrestling Championship on Tuesday.

This is said to be India’s first Greco- Roman gold in the competition after around 27 years as Pappyu Yadav had been the last Indian Greco-Roman wrestler to win the gold at the Asian Championships who had won 48 kg title in the year 1993.

Prior to being in the finals, Sunil had made an impressive comeback in the semi- final bout as he had come from 1-8 down in his semi final bout against his Kazakh opponent Azamat Kustubayev to win the bout 12-8. He had defeated his opponent in the final of 87 kg category in Guwahati at the KD Jadhav Indoor Stadium.

Sunil Kumar had won silver for his performance in the same tournament in the year 2019 and this observed to be an improvement when compared to the previous year.

Arjun Halakurki who is also an Indian had won a bronze in the Greco- Roman 55 kg after beating Donghyeok Won of Korea which is said to be his first medal at his first senior international event.

The Indian Arjun Halakurki has stated that the bout slowly and was down by 1-4 in the first period but he had snatched six point straight with a combination of attack and also good defence. Considering the final score, Arjun has been leading 7-4 which was identified to be in favour of Arjun Halakurki.

Mehar Singh under the category of 130 kg is the hope for India’s third medal has lost his bronze medal bout against Roman Kim of Kyrgystan with a score line of 2-3. the Indian Mehar Singh had been suffering with a wrist injury which had occurred during the semi final bout which he had done earlier.

By Shrithika Kushangi