Thursday's action at the Asian Wrestling Championships 2024 in Bishkek featured five wrestlers from India.
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On Thursday, Udit, a 19-year-old Indian athlete, claimed the silver medal in the men’s 57kg weight class at the 2024 Asian Wrestling Championships, which took place in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. On the same day, his fellow countrymen, Abhimanyu in the 70kg category and Vicky in the 97kg division, each secured bronze medals, bringing India’s medal count to three after the opening day.
Five Indian wrestlers engaged in the fray, all contesting in the men’s freestyle events. While Rohit (67kg) and Parvinder Singh (79kg) participated, neither secured a medal position. In the early rounds, Udit, who holds the title of U20 Asian champion, dispatched his opponents effectively. He overcame Iran’s Ebrahim Mahdi Khari with a score of 10-8, defeated Almaz Smanbekov of Kyrgyzstan 6-4, and triumphed over Kim Kum Hyok from the Democratic Republic of Korea by 4-3.
These victories advanced him to the final against Kento Yumiya from Japan. Despite a valiant effort, Udit narrowly lost 5-4, thus taking home the silver medal. This marked the first occasion since 2019 that an Indian wrestler had not won gold in this weight category, with Ravi Dahiya previously securing three consecutive golds from 2020 to 2022, followed by Aman Sehrawat in 2023.
Moreover, Abhimanyu demonstrated commendable skills by shutting out Lee Seungchul from the Republic of Korea with a 10-0 score in the 70kg quarterfinals. Despite a subsequent loss to Japan’s Yoshinosuke Aoyagi, he rebounded to outmatch Uzbekistan’s Begijon Kuldashev 6-5 for the bronze.
In the 97kg bracket, Vicky overcame Tuerxunbieke Muheite from the People’s Republic of China scoring 9-6 before succumbing to Rizabek Aitmukhan from Kazakhstan due to technical superiority with a score of 13-0. However, Vicky recovered in the bronze medal bout, defeating Andrei Aronov of Kyrgyzstan 10-1. Rohit, competing in the 65kg division, reached the bronze medal match but fell to Japan’s Masanosuke Ono, who won 5-3.
Parvinder Singh faced defeat against Ryunosuke Kamiya from Japan with a 3-0 scoreline in the qualification round and was eliminated from the competition. Looking forward, Indian wrestlers Akash Dahiya (61kg), Yash Tushir (74kg), Sandeep Mann (86kg), Vinay (92kg), and Anirudh Kumar (125kg) are set to compete in the remaining freestyle categories on Friday.
The forthcoming 2024 Asian Wrestling Championships are set to take place in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, from April 11 to 16. A contingent of thirty Indian athletes—ten each from the women’s, men’s freestyle, and Greco-Roman divisions—will vie for supremacy in this key regional contest.
Indian wrestlers are set to compete again under their flag after the Wrestling Federation of India’s suspension was lifted by the international authority, reversing the need to participate neutrally under the UWW banner. Many elite Indian wrestlers will bypass the Asian Championships this year due to the conflicting schedule with the Asian Olympic Wrestling Qualifiers, set at the same location from April 19.
As a result, a relatively inexperienced group will represent India. To date, India has claimed a solitary wrestling berth for the forthcoming Paris 2024 Olympics, secured by Antim Panghal with her bronze medal performance in the women’s 53kg category at the 2023 World Championships.
Although initially anticipated to participate, Panghal has chosen to focus her efforts on the Paris Games, yielding her spot in the national team to Anju, the 2021 U23 World Championship bronze medallist. Anju earned her place by emerging victorious in the 53kg category during the selection trials and notably defeating the accomplished Vinesh Phogat.
