Indian wrestler Deepak Punia settled for silver after he lost 0-10 to three-time World Champion and his idol Hassan Yazdani in the final of the freestyle 86 kg event at Hangzhou Asian Games 2023 on the basis of technical superiority. The Iranian wrestler did not give Punia an inch in the final as he treated the Indian as if he was wrestling a rookie and not the finalist of the Asian Games.
Earlier, Deepak started with a close 3-2 win over Bahrain's Magomed Sharipov in the qualification round. He followed it up with an easy win over Indonesia's Randa Riandesta by technical superiority. He faced Japan's Shirai Shota in the quarterfinals and won the bout by 7-3.
In the semi-final clash, he went up against Uzbekistan's Javrail Shapiev but managed to edge past him with a 4-3 win.
This was not the first time Punia faced the two-time Olympic medallist. However, he could not take him on in the 2019 World Championship in Nur Sultan due to a foot injury. Unfortunately, he had to settle for a silver medal.
Apart from Punia, Yash Tunir (74 kg), Vicky (97 kg) and Sumit Malik (125 kg) made a disappointed exit from the Asian Games as they returned home empty-handed.
India secured a total of six medals, with Bajrang Punia's unexpected loss on Friday standing out as the most disheartening moment.
Sunil Kumar (87kg), Antim Panghal (53kg), Sonam Malik (62kg), Aman Sehrawat (57kg), and Kiran Bishnoi (76kg) were the other athletes who clinched medals for India.
In the 2018 version of the games, India had achieved three medals, with Bajrang and Vinesh Phogat both bringing home gold.
Earlier in the day, the Indian contingent crossed the 100-medal mark as the women's kabaddi team clinched a goal medal by beating Chinese Taipei. India ended their Asian Games 2023 campaign with 107 medals including 28 gold, 38 silver and 41 bronze.
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