Rana, Sharma miss medals in Asian wrestling

The Indian grapplers returned empty-handed after the opening day's proceedings in the Senior Asian Wrestling Championship came to an end here today, as Sunil Kumar Rana and Gaurav Sharma lost their respective bronze medal bouts in the Greco-Roman category.
Rana (66kg) went down to Kazakhstan's Yerbol Konyratov 0-1 1-0 0-1 in a close repechage encounter at the K D Jadhav Wrestling Stadium.
Rana lost the opening period 0-1 after the Kazakh was handed a point on the second foul committed by him.
A visibly upset Rana came back strongly to dominate the second period. He, too, was awarded a point for fouls committed by the Kazakh wrestler.

In the decider, the two wrestlers were locked in an engaging battle before the match went into the tie-breaker after the completion of 1:30 minutes.
The local favourite won the toss and was given an advantage. He, however, failed to capitalise and conceded a point to end India's medal hope on the first day of the championships.

The Greco-Roman style is different from the traditional and popular Indian style, which requires the use of only arms and upper bodies to attack.
"We came very close to winning a medal in this match. Had the Kazakh won the toss, we would have been at an advantage as both wrestlers were tired," said India's coach Hargobind Singh.

Rana, who got a bye in the first round, had defeated China's Gaoquan Zhang 2-0 1-1 to reach the semifinal.
In the semi-final, he was handed 0-7 0-4 pounding by Ji-Hun Kim of Korea who then went on to clinch the gold in the 66kg category by beating Iran's M Zeidvand 1-0 1-0 in the finals.
Another bronze medal contender, Sharma, (55kg) was no match for DPR Korea's Won Chul Yun, who defeated the local lad 0-6 0-7 in a one-sided contest that lasted around two minutes.