Asian Wrestling Championships: Reigning U20 champion Udit in line for maiden senior gold

Young wrestler Udit got himself in contention for a maiden title at the senior Asian Championships by storming into the men’s freestyle 57kg final while three other Indians reached the bronze-medal play-offs here on Thursday.

Reigning U20 Asian champion Udit ensured that the country’s good record in the category, which has had some proven performers like Ravi Dahiya and Aman Sehrawat over the last few years, continues.

India has won four Asian titles in a row in the 57kg category through Olympic silver medallists Ravi (2020, 2021, 2022) and Aman (2023).

It will be Udit’s second medal at the senior level, having won a silver at the UWW Ranking Series event in Tunisia in 2022.

It was a tough opening bout for Udit, who was up against Ebrahim Mahdi Khari, but the Indian got past his Iranian rival with a close 10-8 win.

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He followed it up with a 6-4 victory against local favourite Almaz Smanbekov, and in the semifinal he edged Korea’s Kum Hyok Kim 4-3.

Udit led Kim 2-1 at the end of the first period with a takedown move and made it 3-1 when the Korean was put on the activity clock.

However, the Korea executed an ‘exposure’ move to make it 3-3. Udit wrested back the lead with a reversal and staved off a stiff challenge from the Korean to storm into the final, where he will meet Japan’s Kento Yumiya.

Rohit Kumar (65kg), who had defeated Bajrang Punia in the trials, Abhimanyu (70kg) and Vicky (97kg) will fight for bronze medals after losing their respective semifinal bouts.

Parvinder Singh was the only Indian wrestler who could not enter the medal round on Thursday, as he bowed out in the 79kg competition after losing 0-3 to Japan’s Ryunosuke Kamiya in qualification.