Five wrestlers eliminated from Asian Championship

India’s men’s freestyle wrestlers endured a tough day in the field as all five in action on Saturday bowed out of the Asian Championship after tame defeats.

In the 65kg, Sujeet Kalkal was off to a flying start, beating Palestinian Abdullah Assaf by technical superiority but could not breach the defence of Japanese Kaisei Tanabe. Sujeet had a chance to bounce back to medal contention via the repechage route as Tanabe made the title clash but the Indian did not take the mat due to an injury.

Vishal Kaliraman’s fate was in the hands of his vanquisher Tulga Tumur Ochir from Mongolia. Vishal lost his opening bout 0-8 to the 2022 Asian Games gold medallist. Ochir faced Tajikistan’s Viktor Rassadin in the 65kg semifinal but lost.

Competing in the 57kg category in the absence of Olympics bronze medallist Aman Sehrawat, Chirag could not score even a single point, losing his bout by technical superiority to Almaz Smanbekov. The Kyrgyzstan wrestler then lost his quarterfinal, shutting the repechage door on the Indian. In the 79kg, Chandermohan bowed out after suffering a defeat by fall against Tajikistan’s Magomet Evloev, who later lost his semifinal.