The Asian Wrestling Championship concluded on May 14, 2017 in New Delhi. Indian wrestlers bagged total 10 medals (1 Gold, 5 Silver and 4 Bronze).
- This marks an improvement as compared to 9 medals won by India in previous edition of this Championship in Bangkok.
- In men’s freestyle category, Iran won the championship title with 71 points, followed by Japan with 55 points and Uzbekistan with 49 points. India finished at eight position with 33 points.
- Among women’s teams, Japan won the title. Indian women’s team finished second.
Following Indian Wrestlers won Medals at Asian Wrestling Championship, New Delhi:
- Gold Medal Winner (Men Wrestler) – Bajrang Punia
- Silver Medal Winners (Female Wrestlers) – Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat, Divya Kakran and Sarita
- Silver Medal Winner (Men Wrestler) – Sumit
- Bronze Medal Winners (Female Wrestlers) – Jyoti and Ritu Phogat,
- Bronze Medal Winner (Men Wrestler) – Harpreet Singh and Anil Kumar
Anil, Jyoti bag bronze for India in Asian Wrestling
Anil Kumar and Jyoti won two bronze medals for India in their respective wrestling matches on the second day of the Asian Wrestling Championship in New Delhi on May 11, 2017.
- Anil Lumar won the bronze medal in the Greco-Roman 85kg category by defeating Uzbekistan’s Muhammadali Shamsiddinov.
- In women’s 71 kg category, Indian wrestler Jyoti who lost to Japan’s Masako Furuichi in semi-final bout, received the bronze without any bout as there were less number of wrestlers in her weight category and had no opponent to fight in the repechage round.
Bajrang Punia Wins Gold at Asian Wrestling Championship
On May 13, 2017, Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia won Gold medal for India in men’s 65kg freestyle category by defeating South Korea’s Seunghui Lee at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex in Delhi.
- This is Punia’s first gold medal in a major international tournament and is India’s first Gold Medal in this championship.
- It is to be noted that Bajrang Punia has been mentored by London Olympic bronze-medallist Yogeshwar Dutt.
- Earlier Bajrang Punia had defeated Uzbek wrestler Sirojiddin Hasanov in qualification round, Meisam Nassiri of Iran in quarterfinal and Kukgwang Kim of North Korea in semi-final.
Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat & Divya Kakran win silver in Asian Wrestling Championship
On May 12, 2017, Rio Olympics bronze-medallist Sakshi Malik won a silver medal for India women’s 60kg category at the Asian Wrestling Championship in Delhi.
- In the final bout for Gold, Sakshi lost to Japan’s Risako Kawai. Earlier, Sakshi defeated Nabira Esenbaeva of Uzbekistan in the quarterfinal and then defeated Kazakhstan’s Ayaulym Kassymova in the semi-final.
- Sakshi was competing in the 60kg category for the first time. She was initially enrolled for the 58kg category was found overweight and was subsequently moved to 60k category by Wrestling Federation of India (WFI).
In women’s 55kg category, Vinesh Phogat won silver medal. She lost to Sae Nanjo of Japan in the final bout. Divya Kakran (69 kg) also won a silver medal for India. In the final bout, Divya was defeated by Japan’s Sara Dosho. Earlier, Ritu Phogat won the bronze in the women’s 48kg category after being given a walkover by the Chinese opponent
