Deepak, Udit settle for silver

Deepak Punia won his third silver medal at the Asian Championship and fifth overall while Udit settled for his second successive runner-up finish at the continental event on the concluding day of the event here Sunday.

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The 25-year-old Punia, who could not qualify for the Paris Olympics, began his comeback with a hard-fought contest against Bekzat Rakhimov in 92kg category. He faced stiff resistance from his Kyrgyzstan rival but prevailed 12-7 in a high-scoring quarterfinal. Japan’s Takashi Ishiguro was supposed to be a tough rival but Deepak outplayed him to comfortably win 8-1. In the gold medal bout against Iran’s world No. 1 Amirhossein B Firouzpourbandpei, Deepak lost by technical superiority.

Udit (61kg) blanked China’s Wanhao Zou 2-0 after prevailing 9-6 against Bekbolot Myrzanzar Uulu from Kyrgyzstan. In the gold medal bout, Udit lost 4-6 to world No. 1 Takara Suda.

Dinesh and Mukul Dahiya lost in their bronze medal playoffs.