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Sunil Kumar won bronze in men’s 87kg Greco Roman wrestling at the Asian Games, beating Roberts Callum Johnston.
Sunil Kumar ended the bout in the first period. (Screengrab)
Sunil Kumar became the first Indian Greco Roman wrestler to win two Asian Games medal after clinching a bronze in the men’s 87kg event on the opening day of the wrestling competition on Wednesday.
Sunil assured his podium place with a technical superiority win (9-0) over Philippines’ Roberts Callum Johnston, who was no match to the strength and technical skill of the Indian.
Locking his rival’s right arm, Sunil effected two take downs to quickly open up a 4-0 lead. A defensive Johnston was put on ground in ‘Par Terre’ position from where Sunil made more scoring moves to finish the bout in the first period itself.
Sunil had won a bronze in Hangzhou 2023 Games, ending a 13-year wait for India for medal in the Greco Roman style.
Before that Ravinder Singh and Sunil Kumar Rana had won bronze in 2010 Guangzhou Games.
The 27-year-old Haryana wrestler was left to fight for a bronze medal after losing his semifinal by technical superiority to Japan’s Taizo Yoshida.
This was after he began with a confident technical superiority win over Tajikistan’s Muhammad Sultonzoda.
Against Sultonzoda, the Indian finished the job in a jiffy after his rival was put on a ‘par terre’ position for being defensive. Sunil made full use of the advantageous ground position to employ consecutive gut wrench moves.
In the last-four bout, Yoshida led 6-0 after the first period and added five more points to move to the gold medal match, not giving a single scoring opportunity to Sunil.
“I am happy but not satisfied because I already have a bronze medal at Asian Games. I made a mistake against the Japanese and paid the price. I used strength more than technique ” Sunil told PTI.
“Coach Hargobind had studied my opponents well and we followed a strategy. Credit to him. I will now try to qualify for the Los Angeles Olympics through the Asian Qualifier,” he added.
Hargobind Singh praised Sunil for executing the ‘two-on-one’ grip well.
“He used to bring this ‘two-on-one’ grip into the bouts but struggled to convert that into scores. Here he did well to score points, so well done. He tried to use it against the Japanese also and even had a grip on his waist but left his arm a bit loose to let him effect a shoulder throw,” he told PTI.
“He lost points on counter. We will work on these mistakes. We have a very good chance in 97kg tomorrow. We are expecting Nitesh to win a medal. He has a good path to final,” the coach added.
Aman (77kg), Sumit (60kg) and Nitesh (97kg) will be in action in Greco Roman while Mansi Ahlawat will be on mat in women’s 62kg on Thursday.
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Ask News18Sunil Kumar assured his podium place with a technical superiority win (9-0) over Philippines’ Roberts Callum Johnston on the opening day of the wrestling competition.
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Feroz Khan has been covering sports for over 12 years now and is currently working with Network18 as Principal Correspondent. He embarked on his journey in 2011 and has since acquired vast experience …Read More
September 30, 2026, 16:31 IST
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