Asian Wrestling Championship: Gurpreet, Harpreet enter bronze medal round

New Delhi: Indian wrestlers Gurpreet Singh and Harpreet Singh on Wednesday entered the bronze medal play-off round of their respective Greco-Roman weight divisions at the Asian Wrestling Championship here in New Delhi.

Gurpreet (75kg) had to win a repechage round beating Burgo Beishaliev of Kyrgyzstan to make the cut.

Harpreet (80kg) reached the bronze medal round when his Korean opponent June- Hyoung Kim, who had beaten him in the quarterfinal, entered the gold medal round.

Gurpreet will face Bin Yang of China in his bronze medal match while Harpreet will lock horns with Junjie NA in his encounter.

Meanwhile, it was curtains for the other three Indian Greco-Roman wrestlers – Ravinder (66kg), Hardeep (98kg) and Naveen (130kg).

Ravinder lost to Ali Reizollah Arsalan of Iran 3-5, Hardeep lost Seyedmostafa Seyedghanbar Salehizadeh of Iran 05 and Naveen went down 1-2 to Muminjon Abdullaev of Uzbekistan.

In the last edition of the tournament held in Bangkok last year, India had bagged nine medals – 1 gold, 3 silvers and 5 bronze.

In the competition, 112 freestyle, 103 Greco-Roman and 83 female wrestlers are vying for 24 Gold and Silver, and 48 bronze medals.