Indian wrestlers’ bronze not enough for Olympic quota (Ld)

New Delhi, April 11 : Indias Satyawart Kadiyan and Sumit Malik salvaged some pride by winning bronze medals in their respective freestyle weight categories after missing the cut for this years Tokyo Olympics in the Asian Olympic qualifiers in Almaty on Sunday.

Unimpressive in the morning session as he lost his semi-final bout in 30 seconds, Kadiyan defeated Turkeys Saparov Zyyamuhammet 5-0 in his evening bout to grab bronze in mens 97kg.

In the semis he lost to Mohammad Hossein Mohammadian of Iran 0-10.Malik beat Koreas Kim Donghwan 5-0 to win bronze in mens 125 kg.In the semis, he lost to Yusup Batirmurzaev of Kazakhstan 0-2.However, Sandeep Singh Mann lost his bronze medal bout to Chinas Menghejigam 4-14 in the mens 74 kg.The mens team failed to win a quota place, but women wrestlers Sonam Malik and Anshu Malik booked berths for the Olympics by entering the finals of their respective weight groups.The top two in each of the weight groups in the men and womens sections are allotted Tokyo Olympics quota places.

All those wrestlers who have missed the chance to earn Tokyo Olympic quota places in Almaty will have another chance to qualify for Olympics in the World Olympic qualifier from May 6 to 9 in Sofia, Bulgaria.The national team will also compete in the Asian Championships scheduled to be held in Almaty from April 13.The continental championships do not offer quota places.India in the 2019 Olympic qualifying cycle had got three quota places in the mens category through Bajrang Punia (65 kg), Ravi Dahiya (57 kg) and Deepak Punia (86 kg).In the womens Vinesh Phogat (53 kg) had also won an Olympics berth in 2019.