Abhimanyou and Sujeet clinch gold
Bishkek, April 13 -- World U-23 champion Sujeet and Abhimanyou registered contrasting victories in their respective men's freestyle final bouts to help India clinch two gold medals on the penultimate day of the Asian Wrestling Championships here on Saturday.
Sujeet, who has been unbeaten so far this year, totally dominated the men's 65kg freestyle final against Umidjon Jalolov of Uzbekistan to register an 8-1 win and become the first Indian since Bajrang Punia's 2019 triumph to win the Asian Championships gold medal in this weight category.
Sujeet started slow in the opening round as Jalolov held his ground and did not allow the Indian to attack. But the 23-year-old Indian was quick off the blocks at the start of the second round and went on to register his fifth victory over the Uzbek.
A few minutes later, Abhimanyou made it a double celebration for the Indian camp as he fought back from 0-2 deficit to beat Tulga Tumur Ochir of Mongolia 5-3 in the men's 70kg freestyle final.
Sandeep Mann had the chance to complete a hat-trick of gold medals for India but he went down 1-2 in a closely contested final in 79kg.
Earlier, Ankush defeated Fuga Sasaki of Japan 8-2 to clinch the 57kg bronze to take India's overall medals tally to two gold, four silver and eight bronze medals.
India will have a shot at two more gold medals on the final day of competition as Paris Olympics bronze medallist Aman (61kg) and Mukul Dahiya (86kg) sealed their final berths.
Aman, who had won bronze in Paris in 57kg and Asian Championships gold in the same class two years ago, is playing in a higher weight category here.
In the semi-final, Aman displayed his tenacity in a bout that went down to the wire to beat Ahmad Mohammadnezhadjavan of Iran 11-9.
He will now take on North Korea's Kwang M Kim, who defeated Gulomjon Abdullaev of Uzbekistan by fall in the other semi-final.
In 86kg, Mukul conceded six points early in the semi-final against Bolat Sakayev of Kazakhstan but then scored two crucial takedowns to find his momentum and went on to win 12-6 and seal the final berth. He will now face Kamran Ghasempour of Iran for the gold....
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