Udit wins silver at the Asian Wrestling Championship 2024
Sport
4 min read
Indian male wrestlers won three medals, one silver and two bronze medals, on the first day of the 20th Asian Wrestling Championship 2024 on 11 April 2024. The 20th Asian Wrestling Championship 2024 was held in the Kyrgyzstan capital, Bishkek, from 11 -16 April 2024.
Medal winners for India
Three Indian male wrestlers, Udit, Abhimanyu and Vicky, won the medal in their respective categories.
The U20 Asian champion Udit lost his gold medal match against Japan’s Kento Yumiya.In the 57kg freestyle category final match, settle for a silver medal.
For the first time since 2019, India has not won a gold medal in the 57 kg freestyle category at the Asian Wrestling Championship. Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Ravi Dahiya won a gold medal in 2020, 2021, and 2022. Aman Sehrawat won the gold medal in the 2023 edition.
The U23 world champion bronze medal winner, Abhimanyu, won his bronze medal match against Uzbekistan’s Begijon Kuldashev 6-5. Competing in the 70 kg freestyle category, Abhimanyu had lost to Japan’s Yoshinosuke Aoyagi in the semi-final.
In the 97kg freestyle category, Vicky lost his semi-final match against Kazakhstan’s Rizabek Aitmukhan. In the bronze medal match, Vicky defeated Kyrgyzstan’s Andrei Aronov to win the bronze medal.
The two other Indians, Rohit in the 65 kg freestyle category and Parvinder Singh in the 79 kg freestyle category (79 kg), lost to Japan’s Ryunosuke Kamiya 3-0 in the qualification and could not make it to the medal round.
Indian Contingent at the 20th Asian Wrestling Championship
A total of 30 Indian wrestlers, both men and women, are competing in the 20th Asian Wrestling Championships 2024. The Indian team is competing under the Indian flag in the Asian Championship 2024. Since last year’s World Championships, Indian wrestlers have been competing under the United World Wrestling (UWW) flag after the world wrestling governing body suspended the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). The ban was lifted last month.
Most of the top Indian wrestlers will not participate in this year’s Asian Wrestling Championships because the Asian Olympic Wrestling Qualifiers will be held at the same venue from April 19. India has sent a relatively younger squad to the Asian championship this year.
Amongst the Indian wrestlers, only Antim Panghal has secured a quota for the Paris Olympics 2024. Antim Panghal qualified for the Paris Olympics for her bronze medal-winning performance in the 53 kg category at the 2023 World Wrestling Championships.
In the 19th Asian Wrestling Championship 2023, held at Amman, Jordan, India won 14 medals—one gold, three silvers, and 10 bronze. Aman Sehrawat won the only gold medal for India in the men’s 57kg.
