Asian Wrestling Championships: Gurpreet, Sunil Kumar bag silver

After a 0-8 defeat to Hyeonwoo Kim of Korea, wrestler Gurpreet Singh had to settle for a silver medal in the Greco-Roman 77kg. Sunil Kumar too lost his title clash and finished second in his category.

Gurpreet's road to the final was impressive, as he beat Bakhit Sharif K Badr of Qatar 10-0 in the quarterfinals before eking out a narrow 6-5 victory over Tamerlan Shadukayev of Kazakhstan in the last four round.

Wrestler Gurpreet Singh won India a silver medal in Greco-Roman 77kg at the Asian Wrestling Championships in China on Saturday.

On the penultimate day of the competition, Gurpreet had to be satisfied with a second spot finish after being handed a 0-8 defeat by Hyeonwoo Kim of Korea in the final.

However on his way to the final, Gurpreet put up an impressive show, thrashing Bakhit Sharif K Badr of Qatar 10-0 in the quarterfinals before eking out a narrow 6-5 victory over Tamerlan Shadukayev of Kazakhstan in the last four round.

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In 87kg, Sunil Kumar stormed into the final after prevailing over Azamat Kustubayev of Kazakhstan 6-6 in his semifinal bout.

But just like Gurpreet, Sunil too failed to clinch the top spot as he went down to Hossein Ahmad Nouri of Iran in the title clash.

Earlier, Sunil had beaten Tokhirdzhon Okhonov of Tajikistan 14-7 in the last eight stage.

“I wish I were a little bit more aggressive. That could have changed the colour of the medal. I will strive to train harder and do better in the upcoming tournaments," said Sunil after the final.

“I had a chance of training in Kazakhstan and training with foreign partners helped me improved my standard,” the silver medallist added.

Prem, who was another Indian wrestler in contention for a medal after he made the bronze-medal play-off in the 130kg class despite going down to Muminjon Abdullaev of Uzbekistan in the quarterfinals, could not finish on the podium.

Prem had made it to the play-offs after Abdullaev reached the gold medal round.

Prem lost to Kazakhstan’s Damir Kuzembayev in the third-fourth place fight.

Meanwhile, India’s campaign n the 55kg and 63kg weight divisions ended early when Manjeet and Vikram Krushnath Kurade lost their respective quarterfinal bouts to bow out of the tournament.