Wrestler Ashu clinches bronze at Zagreb Open Ranking Series

Ashu
Ashu won the 67kg bronze medal for India in the Greco-Roman category. File photo: IANS

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 added a second bronze to India's tally, defeating Lithuania's Adomas Grigaliunas 5-0. The Indian had three points in the first period and two in the second as the judges declared a win by decision.

Under-23 world champion, Aman Sehrawat, had won bronze in men's 57kg freestyle on the inaugural day.

Ashu, who 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.

Another Indian Greco-Roman wrestler Sagar lost his 63kg repechage round bout to Austria's Aker Schmid Al Obaidi after his quarterfinal 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 quarterfinal.

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 semifinals through the round-robin format, while Kiran (76kg) also failed to advance.

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