Indian male medal winners at Asian Wrestling Championships 2022

The male members of the Indian contingent came home with several medals from the continental tournament.

Indian wrestling contingent was one of the strongest at the recently concluded Asian Wrestling Championships 2022. The continental showpiece took place in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The female wrestlers did well by bagging two silver and three bronze medals. Although, they missed out on gold which was a disappointing outcome.

In the men’s bracket, India had some reasons to celebrate. Post the conclusion of the tournament, India’s total medal tally stood at 17. While this is an improvement on the last edition’s tally (14), India won more golds last time in Almaty. 

The male wrestlers brought home 12 medals across multiple weight categories from Greco-Roman and freestyle bouts. Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Ravi Kumar Dahiya won the solitary gold for India, which was also his third consecutive at the Asian Championships. Every wrestling enthusiast will hope that this performance sees further improvement in other major events down the line.

On that note, here is a look at the Indian medal winners in the male category of the Asian Wrestling Championships 2022:

Bronze medal winners

Arjun Halakurki (55kg), Neeraj (63kg), Sachin Sahrawat (67kg), Harpreet Singh (82kg), and Sunil Kumar (87kg) all secured bronze medals in the Greco-Roman events. Men’s Greco-Roman is a particularly tough category and bringing five medals is a positive outcome for the Indian wrestlers. This achievement will motivate the Indian athletes to perform better in other tournaments.

Moving on to the freestyle category, Naveen (70kg), Viky (92kg) and Satywart Kadian (97kg) bagged bronze medals. Freestyle is India’s strong point, and this is where the gold and silver medals came from. The trio of Naveen, Viky and Kadian will hope to go a step better and bag either gold or silver by reaching the final bout or securing the most wins.

Silver medal winners

There were three Indian wrestlers who came mightly close to securing gold but had to settle for silver instead at the Asian Wrestling Championships 2022. Bajrang Punia (65kg), Gourav Baliyan (79kg), and Deepak Punia (86kg) brought home silver medals in their respective weight categories of freestyle events. 

Deepak Punia lost to Kazakhstan’s Azamat Dauletbekov in the gold medal match. On the other hand, Bajrang Punia and Gourav Baliyan lost gold to the Iranian duo of Rahman Amouzad and Ali Savadkouhi respectively. 

Gold medal winner

Ravi Kumar Dahiya made history by winning his third consecutive gold at the Asian Wrestling Championships. The Tokyo Olympics medallist secured gold in the 57-kg category of freestyle wrestling. He defeated Rikuto Arai of Japan, Zandanbudyn Zanabazar of Mongolia and Rakhat Kalzhan of Kazakhstan in the run-up to gold. There will be a lot of expectations on the shoulders of Dahiya later in the year in other major tournaments. After all, he has elevated his game further since the silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

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