Asian Games bronze medalist Sunil Kumar was the only Indian wrestler in Greco-Roman who could win a match atleast
Representational Image (Pic: AFP)
Six Indian Greco-Roman wrestlers failed to secure a Paris Olympics 2024 quota in the Asian Wrestling Olympic Qualifiers on Sunday.
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The tournament giving quotas for the Olympics follows a bracket system under which two finalists from each weight category are given quotas for their countries. There is no gold medal or repechage matches, as per Olympics.com.
Four Indian grapplers: Vikas, Sunil Kumar, Nitesh, and Naveen lost during the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, Sumit and Ashu exited the tournament in the qualification rounds only.
Asian Games bronze medalist Sunil Kumar was the only Indian wrestler in Greco-Roman who could win a match atleast. He defeated Japan's Soh Sakabe 5-1 in the qualification round of the 87kg weight category.
But later, he went down to Uzbekistan's reigning Asian Games champion during his final eight bout.
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Vikas faced a 7-0 loss to China's Rui Liu in the 77kg weight division. On the other hand, Nitesh's 97 kg division campaign ended in the Asian Wrestling Olympic Qualifiers quarterfinals with a loss to Uzur Dzhuzupbekov of Kyrgyzstan, a former Asian champion.
Naveen faced a 9-1 loss to Seungchan Lee of China in the 130 kg weight class.
Indian men's freestyle wrestlers also could not get a quota. Aman Sehrawat fell just one win short of a quota to Paris 2024 Olympics.
In Indian womens' wrestling, it was a day of massive success on Saturday, with Vinesh Phogat (50kg), Anshu Malik (57kg) and Reetika Hooda (76kg) securing Paris 2024 quotas.
India has obtained four quotas in wrestling in the Paris 2024 Olympics and all of them have come from women's wrestlers. Antim Panghal first got the quota for India with a bronze medal in the women's 53 kg at the World Championships last year.
The continental qualifier concluded on Sunday was the second-last opportunity for Indian wrestlers to get a quota. The World Qualification Tournament in Turkey, scheduled in May, will be the final wrestling qualifier for Paris 2024.
(With agency inputs)
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