India’s Greco Roman wrestler Sunil Kumar was left to fight for a bronze medal after losing his men’s 87kg semifinals by technical superiority to Japan’s Taizo Yoshida while Nisha Dahiya was yet again shut out by North Korea’s Sol Gum Pak in Nagoya on Wednesday.
Sunil, the bronze medal winner at Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023, began with a confident technical superiority win over Tajikistan’s Muhammad Sultonzoda but was no match to the Japanese World Championship bronze medallist.
Against Sultonzoda, the Indian finished the job in a jiffy after his rival was put on a ‘par terre’ position for being defensive. Sunil made full use of the advantageous ground position to employ consecutive gut wrench moves.
In the last-four bout, Yoshida led 6-0 after the first period and added five more points to move to the gold medal match, not giving a single scoring opportunity to Sunil.
The Indian will now fight it out with Philippines’ Roberts Callum Johnston in the bronze play-off.
In the women’s 68kg event, Nisha lost to North Korea’s Pak in the 1/8 round.
Nisha had moved ahead 2-0 but Pak executed a four-pointer to end the first period with a 4-2 lead.
In the second period, Nisha got a two pointer to level the match. No wrestler could score a point after that and Pak was declared winner on criteria (scoring bigger move). If Pak reaches the final, it will open a repechage route for Nisha.
Incidentally, Nisha had lost to Pak at the Paris Olympics quarterfinals also after suffering an injury. Nisha was leading 8-2 in that bout but left the mat in tears due to an elbow injury as she lost 8-10.
(PTI)
