Sunil Kumar became the first Indian Greco Roman wrestler to win two Asian Games medals after clinching a bronze in the men’s 87kg with a technical superiority win over Philippines’ Roberts Callum Johnston on the opening day of the wrestling competition in Nagoya Wednesday.
Locking his rival’s right arm, Sunil effected two take downs to quickly open up a 4-0 lead. A defensive Johnston was put on ground in ‘Par Terre’ position from where Sunil made more scoring moves to finish the bout in the first period itself.
Sunil had won a bronze in Hangzhou 2023 Games, ending a 13-year year wait for India for medal in the Greco Roman style.
Before that Ravinder Singh and Sunil Kumar Rana had won bronze in 2010 Guangzhou Games.
The 27-year-old Haryana wrestler was left to fight for a bronze medal after losing his semifinal by technical superiority to Japan’s Taizo Yoshida.
He had begun with a confident technical superiority win over Tajikistan’s Muhammad Sultonzoda.
(PTI)
