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India's budding wrestler Udit had to settle for a silver medal after losing 4-5 to Japan's Kento Yumiya in the men's freestyle 57kg final on the very first day of the Asian wrestling championships at Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on Thursday.
This is Udit's second medal at the senior level. He won a silver medal at the UWW Ranking Series in Tunisia in 2022. It was a tough first-round match for Udit in which he defeated his Iranian rival Ebrahim Mahdi Khari 10-8. The 19-year-old then defeated local favourite Almaz Smanbekov 6-4 before winning 4-3 over Korea's Kim Kum Hyok in the Asian wrestling championships semi-finals.
In the closely-fought title clash, Udit trailed 3-4 before levelling the scores and leading the bout on criteria. He defended well in the closing minute until Yumiya managed to get a hold of the Indian’s right leg and effected a push-out in the final second to score a 5-4 win. The overjoyed Yumiya could not stop his tears, while a shocked Udit left the arena in utter disbelief.
5 Indian Wrestlers competed on the first day
On the first day of the Asian Wrestling Championship, 5 Indian wrestlers competed in the men's freestyle category. Apart from Udit, Abhimanyu, Vicky, Rohit (67 kg) and Parvinder Singh (79 kg) gave their performance. However, Rohit Kumar and Parvinder could not bring any medals in the game. Rohit had reached this competition after defeating Bajrang Punia in the trials. On the other hand, Abhimanyu and Vicky won bronze medals in the 70 kg and 90kg freestyle categories respectively.
Abhishek won the bronze medal by defeating Begijon Kuldashev of Uzbekistan 6-5. At the same time, Vicky defeated Andrei Aronov of Kyrgyzstan by 10-1. With this, India has registered three medals in its name on the very first day of the tournament.
Apart from these players, India's Akash Dahiya, Yash Tushir, Sandeep Mann, Vinay, and Anirudh Kumar will be seen playing in the men's freestyle category on Friday.