New Delhi, (Samajweekly) Dreams of three male freestyle wrestlers — Sandeep Singh Mann, Satyawart Kadiyan and Sumit Malik, to qualify for this year’s Tokyo Olympics went up in smoke on Sunday as they lost their respective semi-final bouts at the Olympic qualifying tournament in Almaty.
All the three wrestlers failed to make it to the finals, thus missing out on an Olympic quota.
The promising 21-year-old Mann from Punjab was expected to win his semi-final bout that would have fetched him an Olympic berth. However, he went down tamely to Iran’s Yones Aliakbar Emamichoghaei.
A good defence saw the Indian concede only two points in the opening three minutes of the six-minute bout. Mann was expected to bounce back in the second half of the contest, but eventually lost to the Iranian 10-0.
Satyawart Kadiyan, Haryana’s undisputed champion in the men’s 97kg freestyle, lost in just 30 seconds. The Indian conceded three technical superiority points to Iran’s Mohammad Hossein Mohammadian and bowed out of the contest with a 10-0 loss.
In the 125kg bout, Sumit Malik managed to last six minutes but two early points proved costly for the Haryana wrestler. He lost 0-2 to Yusup Batirmurzaev of Kazakhstan. All the three wrestlers stay in the race for a bronze medal scheduled for later.
