Asian Wrestling Championship: Harpeet, Sachin add two more bronze to tally, India's Greco-Roman contingent ends with five medals

Sachin Sahrawat and Harpeet Singh grabbed bronze medals on Wednesday as India's Greco Roman contingent cherished its second best show at the Asian Championship with five medals. Competing in the 67kg category, Sachin dominated the bronze play-off, winning by fall against Uzbekistan's Mahmud Bakhshilloev. This was after he lost his quarterfinal in a similar manner to Meiirzhan Shermakhanbet from Kazakhstan.

Harpreet Singh (82kg) did not have to move a sinew in his medal bout as his rival from Qatar, Jafar Khan M Khan, did not take the mat due to an injury. The medal-winning show from Sachin and Harpreet meant that India ended up with five medals in the Greco Roman event of the championship. In the 2020 edition, India had won one gold (won by Sunil Kumar) and four bronze medals in Delhi.

On the opening day of the championships on Tuesday, Sunil Kumar (87kg), Arjun Halakurki (55kg) and Neeraj (63kg) had won bronze medals. Encouraged by the team's stupendous show, the Wrestling Federation of India said that it will ensure that the country's Greco Roman wrestlers will have sparring partners from abroad at the national camp so that their performances keep getting better. "To win these medals when you have a strong Japan, Iran and Kazakhstan in field is no mean achievement.

The wrestlers have asked for better training partners from abroad and we will get them after this Championship," WFI Assistant Secretary Vinod Tomar told PTI. "We have told Indian coaches that they have to run training programme at the camps. We are not hiring any foreign coach now.

Regular practice at the camp has given us results this year," he added. In 60kg, Gyanendra lost his bronze play-off by technical superiority to Japan's Ayata Suzuki. In 72kg,