Cheema wins bronze in wrestling

Grappler Palwinder Singh Cheema fetched India its first medal in wrestling in the 14th Asian Games, winning the bronze in the 120kg category on Monday.

Cheema lost his semi-final bout but won the bronze medal play-off against Korea's top wrestler Jung Hun Shin by a 4-0 verdict.

Earlier Cheema had defeated China's Jinlong 3-1 in the repechage.

The gold in the category was clinched by Uzbekistan's Artur Tayazov while silver was grabbed by Iran's Abbas Jadidi.

In the 60kg division, India's Shokinder Tomar won a preliminary bout against Vietnam's Dang Hy Doi to move into the third round.

Tomar will fight Afghanistan's Mir Mohammad Nadar in his next bout tomorrow.

Freestyle wrestler Anil Kumar Mann, who was controversially selected and "unofficially" made it to the Games, lost in all his three bouts in the Greco-Roman category.

He lost to Islam Bairamukov of Kazakhstan in his first bout, in three minutes 43 seconds. In next bout, he went down to China's Wang Yuanyuan by a fall, in one minute and 13 seconds, while in the last bout, he managed to last the whole distance against Iran's Alireza Haydari before going down 8-4.

A silver medallist at the Commonwealth Games, Mann had lost to Jagadish Kaliram in the selection trials, held in Patiala in August, but was selected ahead of him. The Indian Olympic Association disallowed him from participating in Games on Friday for "not getting a clearance from the government", but it surprisingly did an about turn on Saturday and decided to field him in 96kg Greco-Roman category, a place which should have gone to National champion Satish Kumar. Kumar was wrongfully overlooked for the Games as the government mistook him for his namesake from West Bengal, who had tested positive for doping in the National Games, held in Punjab in November last year.

Meanwhile, Sujeet Maan defeated Mangolian Battuya Batchuluun 3-1 in the preliminary round to keep his hopes alive in the freestyle 74 kg category. In the third round tomorrow Maan will face Pakistan's Mohammaed Ali.

Indian women's wrestler had a poor day today with both Gursharan Preet Kaur and Alka Tomar suffering defeats against their Japananese rivals.

While Kaur was no match for Kyoko Hamaguchi (0-4) in the 72 kg free-style category, Alka Tomar lost to Saori Yoshida (0-4) in the direct elimination fourth round of the 55kg division.