Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan): Rising Indian wrestler Udit settled for a silver medal after a 4-5 loss to Kento Yumiya of Japan in the men's freestyle 57kg final at the senior Asian Championship here on Thursday. India also won two bronze medals through Abhimanyou and Vicky in their respective categories.
Abhimanyu defeated Begijon Kuldashev of Uzbekistan 6-5 in men's 70kg freestyle, while Vicky pinned down home favourite Andrey Romanovitch Aronov 10-1 in the men's 97kg for India's third medal of the day. However, there was heartbreak for Rohit Kumar (65kg), who had defeated Bajrang Punia in the trials, as he lost to Masanosuke Ono of Japan 3-5 in his bronze medal match.
In the 57kg final, the 19-year-old Indian and his Japanese rival were locked four-all with seconds left on the clock. However, the Japanese demonstrated impressive agility and awareness, swiftly breaking free from Udit's grasp. With just seconds remaining, Yumiya seized the initiative by executing a quick shoot on Udit's right leg.
The precision of Yumiya's technique was evident as he drove Udit off the mat, earning the decisive point to seal the gold. Reigning U20 Asian champion Udit thus ensured that the country's good record in the category, which has had some proven performers like Ravi Dahiya and Aman Sehrawat over the last few years, continues.
India have won four Asian titles in a row in the 57kg category through Olympic silver medallist Ravi (2020, 2021, 2022) and Aman (2023). It was Udit's second medal at the senior level, having won a silver at the UWW Ranking Series event in Tunisia in 2022. It was a tough opening bout for Udit, who was up against Ebrahim Mahdi Khari but the Indian got past his Iranian rival with a close 10-8 win.
He followed it up with a 6-4 victory against local favourite Almaz Smanbekov and in the semifinal he edged Korea's Kum Hyok Kim 4-3. Udit led Kim 2-1 at the end of the first period with a takedown move and made it 3-1 when the Korean was put on the activity clock.
However, the Koreans executed an 'exposure' move to make it 3-3. Udit wrested back the lead with a reversal and staved off a stiff challenge from the Korean to storm into the final. Parvinder Singh was the only Indian wrestler who could not enter the medal round on Thursday as he bowed out in the 79kg competition after losing 0-3 to Japan's Ryunosuke Kamiya in qualification.
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