Asian Wrestling Championships 2023: India win three medals in Greco-Roman on first day

The young Indian contingent won a silver and two bronze.

Indian wrestling contingent finished the first day of the Asian Wrestling Championships 2023 with three medals. 19-year-old Rupin won the first medal of the day, a silver medal in the 55 KG weight category of the Greco-Roman event. Neeraj followed Rupin with a bronze medal-winning display in the 63 KG weight category of the same event. Finally, Sunil Kumar finished the day of the Indian contingent with another bronze medal in the 87 KG weight category.

India has fielded a depleted squad after big names like Olympics medalists Bajrang Punia and Ravi Kumar Dahiya, and multiple World Championships medalists like Vinesh Phogat decided to withdraw their names from all the national and international events. The withdrawal comes as a result of the ongoing controversy between the top Indian wrestlers and the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). The wrestlers have unanimously declared that they will not be participating until the enquiry against the WFI reaches its conclusion.

So, the Indian contingent for the Asian Wrestling Championships 2023 is full of youngsters and is led by veterans like Deepak Punia and Sarita Mor. India has had a great track record in the continental championships, with the contingent coming back with more than 15 medals three times in the past four editions. And if we are to go by what happened on Day 1 of the Asian Wrestling Championships 2023, it would be a safe bet to make on the Indian grapplers coming back with more than 15 medals again.

Three medals from five Greco-Roman weight categories

Five Indians took the mat on Day 1 of the Asian Wrestling Championships 2023, competing in various weight categories of Greco-Roman wrestling. Of the five, three finished the day with a medal, whereas one faltered in the repechage round before the bronze medal match.

Rupin started with a dominant display, a 16-7 win against Kyrgyzstan's Sardarbek Konushbaev in the qualification round. Amangali Bekbelatov of Kazakhstan was Rupin's next opponent. The Kazakh grappler gave a tougher fight (6-4 win for Rupin) in the quarter-finals and the Indian didn't have it easy against China's Haifeng Zhang in the semi-finals (3-1 win for Rupin). The final was once again a close affair albeit the result was this time in the favour of Iran's Poya Soulat Daad Marz (3-1 loss for Rupin).

Neeraj, on the other hand, held on to a 7-6 lead against Kyrgyzstan's Dastan Kazyrov in the qualification round. He then was defeated by technical superiority by Iran's Khoon Mohammadi (9-0). In the bronze medal match, Neeraj got the better of Korea's Jinseub Song with a 5-2 win.

The final medal of the day came in a similar fashion as the second as Sunil Kumar won by technical superiority (9-1) against Tajakistan's Saidislomiddin Aslamov. Naser Ghasem Alizadeh of Iran defeated Sunil in the semi-finals by a five-pointer. Finally, in the bronze medal bout, Sunil Kumar defeated Masato Sumi of Japan to win his second bronze medal at the continental championships.

Five more Indians are expected to give their shots at winning a medal in the Greco-Roman event of the Asian Wrestling Championships 2023 before we switch to the Women's Wrestling and Men's Freestyle weight categories.