Asian Games: Mausam Khatri opens India’s account in freestyle wrestling

Mausam Khatri provided India with its first medal in freestyle wrestling by overcoming Korea’s Jaegang Kim to clinch the bronze in the 96kg competition on Thursday.

However, two other grapplers — Rajeev Tomar (120kg) and Nirmala Devi (women’s 48kg) crashed out after losing their first round bouts.

Khatri secured the bronze after winning his repechage bout against Raja Akkarrad of Syria 3-1 that put him into the bronze medal bout against Korean Kim, which he won by the same margin to finish third.

Earlier, he lost his opening bout against Kazakhstan’s Timuraz Tigiyev 1-3 before fighting his way back to the podium.

“I am extremely delighted that I was able to win a medal for my country. I will spare no effort for a better performance at the London Olympics,” said Khatri who was omitted from the Commonwealth Games squad after testing positive for a banned drug in the run-up to the event.

Coach Sangha Singh praised Khatri for saving the freestyle wrestlers from total ignominy. “I am happy Khatri has won a bronze medal and made up for the others’ failure after Wednesday’s bad day,” he said.

Khatri fought well against the strong Korean opponent in the bronze medal bout. Both scored a point each in the first period before the Indian scored two more in the next two minutes to clinch the medal. Freestyle grapplers, who grabbed six medals for India that included a silver (in women’s wrestling) four years back at Doha, had drawn a blank on the first day.