Almaty (Kazakhstan), (Asian independent) National champion Aman Sehrawat clinched the gold medal while Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Bajrang Punia settled for the bronze on the final day of the 2022 Bolat Turlykhanov Cup wrestling tournament, here on Sunday.
With the two more medals, India concluded the United World Wrestling’s ranking series with 11 medals – six golds, one silver, and four bronze. Five of the golds were won by women.
Aman Sehrawat overcame a stiff challenge from Kazakhstan’s Meirambek Kartbay in the opening round of 57kg to win 15-12. He then sailed past Kyrgyzstan’s Abdymalik Karachov via technical superiority and received a walkover from Zhakhongir Akhmajanov of Kazakhstan in the next two round-robin matches.
The last round once again proved challenging for Sehrawat but he persevered to beat Kazakh wrestler Merey Bazarbayev 10-9 and claim the gold medal.
On the other hand, Bajrang lost the first round bout of the men’s 65kg weight division to Asian bronze medal-winner Abbos Rakhmonov of Uzbekistan by a close 5-3 margin.
However, with Abbos Rakhmonov making it to the finals, Bajrang, a three-time world championships medallist, earned a shot at the bronze medal. He blanked Rifat Saibotalov of Kazakhstan 7-0 to secure the bronze medal.
Meanwhile, Tokyo Olympian and world championships silver medallist Deepak Punia bulked up for the event and competed in the 92kg instead of his pet 86kg category.
Punia, however, lost twice in the round-robin matches and could not make it to the medal rounds. Vicky Chahar, who competed in the same category, suffered a similar fate.
Gourav Baliyan, a two-time Asian medallist, lost in the 79kg quarter-finals to Daulet Yergesh of Kazakhstan. Vishal Kaliramana (70kg) and Naveen (74kg) made it to medal matches despite losing in their respective quarter-finals but could not win their bronze medal bouts.
Notably, Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Ravi Kumar Dahiya had opted to skip the meet.
