Ashu clinches bronze as other wrestlers disappoint in Zagreb

Asian Championships bronze medallist Ashu clinched the 67kg bronze medal for India in the Greco Roman category on the concluding day of the Zagreb Open Ranking Series here on Sunday.

The 23-year-old grappler added a second bronze to India’s tally, defeating Lithuania’s Adomas Grigaliunas 5-0. Under-23 world champion, freestyle wrestler Aman Sehrawat, had won the men’s 57kg bronze on the inaugural day.

Ashu, who had lost Iran’s Reza Mahdi Abbasi 9-0 in the qualification round, came back strongly in the repechage bouts, defeating Hungary’s Adam Phoilec 8-0 before overcoming Norway’s Haavard Joergensen 9-0 to make the bronze-medal round.

The Indian had three points in the first period and two in the second as the judges declared a win by decision.

Another Indian Greco-Roman wrestler Sagar lost his 63kg repechage round bout to Austria’s Aker Schmid Al Obaidi after his quarter-final rival, Iran’s Aref Hossein Khoun Mohammadi, entered the final.

In other bouts on Sunday, Birmingham Commonwealth Games silver medallist Samantha Stewart got the better of India’s Asian Championships bronze medallist Sushma Shokeen with the Canadian effecting a fall in the the women’s 53kg quarter-final.

Sushma had beaten France’s Tetiana Profatilova and China’s Yuhong Zhong in the earlier rounds.

More disappointment was in store for India as 72kg wrestler Reetika could not make it to the semi-finals through the round-robin format, while Kiran (76kg) also failed to advance.

Greco-Roman wrestlers Manjeet (55kg), Gyanender (60kg), Ankit Gulia (72kg) and Narinder Cheema (97kg) also returned empty-handed from the event as they failed to qualify for the medal rounds of their respective weight categories.