By Our Special Correspondent
It seems a tight rope walking for Deepak Punia. Deepak Punia could do nothing against the solid defence of Kazakhstan's Azmat Dauletbekov and settled for a silver medal while Viky Chahar grabbed a bronze in the 92kg competition on the concluding day of the Asian Championship, here on Sunday. In the absence of Iranian superstar Hassan Yazdani, Indian wrestler Deepak Punia (86kg) was one of the title favourites at the Asian Championships in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Top seed Azamat Dauletbekov from Kazakhstan was standing between him and his first-ever gold at the continental event.
Eyeing his maiden gold medal at the continental event, Deepak reached the final without conceding a single point as he first blanked Iran's Mohsen Miryousef Mostafavi Alanjagh (6-0) and then humbled Korea's Gwanuk Kim (5-0).
However, Dauletbekov did not let the Indian play his aggressive game in the summit clash. The Kazakh made effective counter-attacking moves to build on the lead and eventually won by a comfortable 6-1 margin. It is Deepak's fourth medal at the Asian Championship, having won a silver (2021) and two bronze (2019, 2020) before.
Adding to India's medal tally was Viky, who won the bronze medal bout against Uzbekistan's Ajiniyaz Saparniyazov 5-3. India signed off with 17 medals from the Continental event but Ravi Dahiya was the lone gold medal winner in the men's freestyle 57kg category.
While Greco Roman wrestlers' five-medal winning show was encouraging, the fact that India managed to win just one gold medal when the fields were depleted is not a good sign.
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