Anirudh lone bright spot for India on final day

Anirudh Kumar (125kg) was the lone medallist for India on Friday as Tokyo Olympian Deepak Punia failed to reach the medal round on the final day of the Asian Championships in Astana on Friday. Anirudh beat Uzbekistan's Sardorbek Kholmatov on technical superiority (12-2) to claim his maiden Seniors international medal.

The 21-year-old began his campaign with a dominant 8-2 win over Japan's Taiki Yamamoto before losing the quarter-final by fall (2-0) to Kazakhstan's Yusup Batirmurzaev in 31 seconds. In the bronze medal playoff against Kholmatov, Anirudh was at his dominant best, closing out the contest with 30 seconds remaining in the first period.

A product of the city's Chhatrasal Stadium where he has been staying for a decade now, Anirudh hails from Sonipat's Purkhas village. He won the cadet Asian and Worlds bronze in 2019 and secured another third-place finish at 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, said.

Anirudh was among the prime contenders to represent India at last year's Commonwealth Games but was pegged back by a lower back injury during the trials. Instead, Mohit Grewal went to Birmingham and came home with a bronze medal.

The lower back injury kept Anirudh out of action for two months. He marked his return to competition with a Nationals bronze in December and soon 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.

Meanwhile, four-time Asian Championships medallist Deepak Punia drew a blank in the 92kg division. The 23-year-old beat China's Xiao Sun 8-1 in his opening bout but lost to Bahrain's Magomed Sharipov 5-0.

This was Punia's first competition since his Commonwealth Games gold and the army man from Haryana had moved up a weight class from his usual 86kg. He had only recently recovered from an Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) injury to his right elbow that he sustained at a training camp in Michigan just days after winning his CWG gold.

The injury forced him to skip the World Championships that followed and kept him from mat training till a week before the Asian Championship.

"Deepak appeared quite subdued in his attacks. He was possibly worried about his elbow," Lalit said.

Among other Indians in action, Pankaj lost his quarter-final bout in the 61kg class while Jointy Kumar went down at the same stage in the 86kg division. Aman Sehrawat (57kg) remains the lone Indian gold medallist in the competition while Antim Panghal (53kg), Nisha Dahiya (68kg) and Rupin (GR 55 kg) reached the finals in their respective weight divisions.

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