Anirudh Kumar (125kg) was the lone medallist for India on Friday as Tokyo Olympian Deepak Punia failed to achieve the medal spherical on the ultimate day of the Asian Championships in Astana on Friday. Anirudh beat Uzbekistan’s Sardorbek Kholmatov on technical superiority (12-2) to say his maiden Seniors worldwide medal.
The 21-year-old started his marketing campaign with a dominant 8-2 win over Japan’s Taiki Yamamoto earlier than dropping the quarter-final by fall (2-0) to Kazakhstan’s Yusup Batirmurzaev in 31 seconds. Within the bronze medal playoff towards Kholmatov, Anirudh was at his dominant greatest, closing out the competition with 30 seconds remaining within the first interval.
A product of the town’s Chhatrasal Stadium the place he has been staying for a decade now, Anirudh hails from Sonipat’s Purkhas village. He gained the cadet Asian and Worlds bronze in 2019 and secured one other third-place end on the Junior World Championships in 2021.
“He’s a well-rounded wrestler, however nonetheless a piece in progress. We’re nonetheless engaged on some technical areas and if he is ready to study, you may see him win loads of worldwide medals in close to future,” Lalit Kumar, head coach at Chhatrasal Stadium, mentioned.
Anirudh was among the many prime contenders to characterize India ultimately yr’s Commonwealth Video games however was pegged again by a decrease again damage throughout the trials. As an alternative, Mohit Grewal went to Birmingham and got here dwelling with a bronze medal.
The decrease again damage saved Anirudh out of motion for 2 months. He marked his return to competitors with a Nationals bronze in December and shortly injured his shoulder.
“Anirudh is sort of injury-prone. In heavier weights, you will get injured actually badly, so that’s one space he wants to protect towards,” Lalit added.
In the meantime, four-time Asian Championships medallist Deepak Punia drew a clean within the 92kg division. The 23-year-old beat China’s Xiao Solar 8-1 in his opening bout however misplaced to Bahrain’s Magomed Sharipov 5-0.
This was Punia’s first competitors since his Commonwealth Video games gold and the military man from Haryana had moved up a weight class from his common 86kg. He had solely just lately recovered from an Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) damage to his proper elbow that he sustained at a coaching camp in Michigan simply days after profitable his CWG gold.
The damage pressured him to skip the World Championships that adopted and saved him from mat coaching until every week earlier than the Asian Championship.
“Deepak appeared fairly subdued in his assaults. He was presumably apprehensive about his elbow,” Lalit mentioned.
Amongst different Indians in motion, Pankaj misplaced his quarter-final bout within the 61kg class whereas Jointy Kumar went down on the identical stage within the 86kg division. Aman Sehrawat (57kg) stays the lone Indian gold medallist within the competitors whereas Antim Panghal (53kg), Nisha Dahiya (68kg) and Rupin (GR 55 kg) reached the finals of their respective weight divisions.