By Sports Reporter/Doha
Several top men and women wrestlers will be seen in action at the 2015 Asian Wrestling Championships beginning at Aspire Dome today.
Organised by the Qatar Wrestling Federation, the event brings together athletes from 20 countries and will serve as the qualifier for the 2015 World Championships in Las Vegas.
Three-time Olympic women’s champion and nine-time world champion Kaori Icho of Japan enters the event as the most decorated competitor in the event. World No1 Icho, who has been off the international circuit since winning the 2014 World Championships in Tashkent, is the favourite to take the 58kg title.
Other defending champions among women include Tatyana Amanzhol of Kazakhstan in 48kg, 2012 champion Kanako Murata of Japan in 63kg and 2013 champion Hiroe Suzuki also of Japan in 75kg.
The competition today will begin with men’s freestyle event, which will feature a handful of returning champions including Uzbekistan’s Bekzod Abdurakhmonov (70kg) and Rashid Kurbanov (74kg). Both the grapplers took gold medals at last year’s Asian Games in Incheon.
Iran are bringing a young and talented team to Qatar. Masmoud Esmaeilpour (61kg) and Komeil Ghasemi (125kg) will both hope to defend the Asian titles they captured last year in Astana.
Kazakhstan’s Rasul Kaliyev (57kg) will also look to defend his 2014 title and last year’s 61kg bronze medallist Daulet Niyazbekov will be hoping for gold this time.
The Asian Championships will close with Greco-Roman wrestling, featuring a host of Olympic and world champions. Leading the final day of completion will be Korea’s 2012 Olympic champion and 2013 world champion Kim Hyeon-woo (75kg) and 2013 world champion Ryu Hansu (66kg). Kim is currently ranked No 1 in the world while Ryu comes in ranked No.4. Both wrestlers also took gold at the 2014 Asian Games.
Last year’s 59kg runner-up Shinobu Ota of Japan will look to reverse his 2014 gold medal final loss against Uzbekistan’s Elmurat Tasmuradov, who also took bronze at last year’s world championships in Tashkent. Kazakhstan’s Nursultan Tursynov will look to defend his 84kg continental title alongside 2014 Asian Games champion and three-time world bronze medallist Nurmakhan Tinaliev (130kg).
Meanwhile, Praveen Rana and Narsingh Yadav will spearhead the Indian challenge. The men’s freestyle team comprises of Rahul Aware (57kg), Sonu (61kg), Rajneesh (65kg), Somvir (86kg), Mausam Khatri (97kg) and Hitender (125kg), besides Rana (70kg) and Narsingh (74kg).
Commonwealth gold medallist Vignesh (48kg), Babita Kumari (53kg), Lalita (55kg), Geeta (58kg), Sakshi Malik (60kg), Anita Sheoran (63kg), Suman Kundu (69kg) and Anshu Tomar (75kg) form the women’s freestyle team for the prestigious event..
Four Qatari grapplers -- Abdulqader Omar, Jaafar Khan, Husain Raisi, Bakhit Sherif and Abdulrahman Ibrahim -- will take part in the event. The wrestlers recently underwent training in Belarus and are expected to do well.
Zamel Shahrani, Chairman of organizing committee, said the Asian Championship has attracted fierce competition with confirmation of top names for the event. “We will have world and Olympic champions competing here and we are excited about that. This championship is being held for the first time in the Gulf region and we hope the presence of more wrestlers from the Arab countries would be good. They will gain in experience when they compete against the best and get to improve their wrestling skills,” he added.
Schedule
Today, May 6
10:00 – Qualification Round Freestyle: 57-65-86-125kg; Women’s Wrestling: 58kg
19:30 – Finals
Tomorrow, May 7
10:00 -- Qualification Round Freestyle: 61-70-74-97kg; Women’s Wrestling: 48kg
18:00 – Finals
Friday, May 8
10:00 -- Qualification Round Women’s Wrestling: 53-55-60-63-69kg
18:00 – Finals
Saturday, May 9
10:00 -- Qualification Round Women’s Wrestling: 75kg; Greco-Roman: 59-71-85kg
18:00 – Finals
Sunday, May 10
10:00 -- Qualification Round Greco-Roman: 66-75-80-98-130kg
18:00 – Finals
Kaori Icho of Japan
