Anirudh Kumar (125kg) was the lone medallist for India on Friday as Tokyo Olympian Deepak Punia failed to achieve the medal spherical on the ultimate day of the Asian Championships in Astana on Friday. Anirudh beat Uzbekistan’s Sardorbek Kholmatov on technical superiority (12-2) to say his maiden Seniors worldwide medal.

Anirudh Kumar (2nd from left)(Media_SAI)

The 21-year-old started his marketing campaign with a dominant 8-2 win over Japan’s Taiki Yamamoto earlier than dropping the quarter-final by fall (2-0) to Kazakhstan’s Yusup Batirmurzaev in 31 seconds. Within the bronze medal playoff in opposition to Kholmatov, Anirudh was at his dominant greatest, closing out the competition with 30 seconds remaining within the first interval.

A product of town’s Chhatrasal Stadium the place he has been staying for a decade now, Anirudh hails from Sonipat’s Purkhas village. He gained the cadet Asian and Worlds bronze in 2019 and secured one other third-place end on the Junior World Championships in 2021.

“He is a well-rounded wrestler, but still a work in progress. We are still working on some technical areas and if he is able to learn, you’ll see him win a lot of international medals in near future,” Lalit Kumar, head coach at Chhatrasal Stadium, stated.

Anirudh was among the many prime contenders to characterize India ultimately 12 months’s Commonwealth Video games however was pegged again by a decrease again harm through the trials. As a substitute, Mohit Grewal went to Birmingham and got here residence with a bronze medal.

The decrease again harm stored Anirudh out of motion for 2 months. He marked his return to competitors with a Nationals bronze in December and shortly injured his shoulder.

“Anirudh is quite injury-prone. In heavier weights, you can get injured really badly, so that is one area he needs to guard against,” Lalit added.

In the meantime, four-time Asian Championships medallist Deepak Punia drew a clean within the 92kg division. The 23-year-old beat China’s Xiao Solar 8-1 in his opening bout however misplaced to Bahrain’s Magomed Sharipov 5-0.

This was Punia’s first competitors since his Commonwealth Video games gold and the military man from Haryana had moved up a weight class from his ordinary 86kg. He had solely lately recovered from an Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) harm to his proper elbow that he sustained at a coaching camp in Michigan simply days after successful his CWG gold.

The harm pressured him to skip the World Championships that adopted and stored him from mat coaching until every week earlier than the Asian Championship.

“Deepak appeared quite subdued in his attacks. He was possibly worried about his elbow,” Lalit stated.

Amongst different Indians in motion, Pankaj misplaced his quarter-final bout within the 61kg class whereas Jointy Kumar went down on the similar stage within the 86kg division. Aman Sehrawat (57kg) stays the lone Indian gold medallist within the competitors whereas Antim Panghal (53kg), Nisha Dahiya (68kg) and Rupin (GR 55 kg) reached the finals of their respective weight divisions.