Zouhaier Sghaier 2022: India won 3 Gold on opening day of Zouhaier Sghaier ranking series wrestling

Sunil Kumar, Gyanender and Sachin Sahrawat won gold in their respective Greco Roman weight categories on the opening day of Zouhaier Sghaier 2022 in Tunis, Tunisia on Thursday. On the other hand, Arjun Halakuri, Neeraj and Deepanshu brought silver while Naveen brought bronze in the Ranking Series of Tunisia.

Sunil Kumar competed in 87 kg division and Gyanender in 63 kg division in the finals. They both were among the two wrestlers listed in these events. Ex-Asian champion, Sunil Kumar has defeated Mohamed Skander Missaoui of Tunisia by 2-1. Gyanender beat Oussama Nasr of Tunisia by the technical dominance.

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The 63 kg division was contested in a Nordic round format because there were just four wrestlers in the lineup, Sachin Sahrawat edge Neeraj for the gold medal. The Nordic round system is only used when there are less than six athletes competing in a weight category. In the first round, Neeraj defeated Sahrawat by 3-1 but Sahrawat rebounded to win over Volkan Cakil of Turkey 8-0 and Koussay Melki of Tunisia 10-0. When Neeraj lost his final match to Volkan Cakil 11-8, naturally the gold went to Sahrawat. Neeraj had to be happy with silver.

 Arjun Halakuri (60 kg) and Deepanshu (97 kg) also won silver in the three wrestler field while Naveen (130kg) won bronze. Arjun Halakuri has defeated Salim Hamdi by 13-9 while defeating Algerian opponent Abdelkarim Fergat. In the third round, Arjun lost to Ayhan Karakus of Turkey, settling himself a silver medal.

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Deepanshu participated in the Nordic round competition as well. He won his first round by 8-3 over Mohamed Dhia Jabri of Tunisia. After that, he failed to Muhutdin Saricicek of Turkey in just short 2-1. Right after the lost, Deepanshu defeated Algerian Adem Boudjemline 3-1 to win the silver medal.

Sakshi Malik, a bronze medalist from Rio 2016, will compete in the women's 62kg weight class on Friday. Beginning on Saturday, men's freestyle wrestlers will compete.