Action from one of bouts in the Asian Wrestling Championships.
By Sports Reporter/Doha
Kaori Icho of Japan showed why she is best in the business as she defended her 58kg title at the Senior Asian Wrestling championship, which began at Aspire yesterday.
Icho was the overwhelming favourite coming into the event and she lived up to the billing. The three-time Olympic and nine-time world champion was hardly made to sweat as she comprehensively outplayed Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kirgizstan 10-0 in the final.
The World No1 Icho had been off the international circuit since winning the 2014 World Championships in Tashkent, but she wasn’t rusty by any stretch of imagination.
The win ensured her a spot in the World Championship to be held in Las Vegas later this year and the Japanese is also gunning to become the first wrestler to win four Olympic Gold medals at the Rio Games next year.
The bronze medals in the 58kg category went to Aiym Abdildina of Kazakhstan and India’s Geeta Phoogat. Abdildina beat Kyeongeun Kim of Korean 3-0, while Phogat defeated Vietnam’s Thi Loan Nyguen by fall verdict in the bronze medal play-off.
En-route to the bronze medal play off, Geeta had lost a pool bout only to Icho through fall. In another group bout, Icho had earned a quick technical fall against Nguyen 10-0.
Among men, it was Iran men who hogged the limelight on the opening day of the event, finishing with two gold, one silver and bronze.
In the men’s 65kg Freestyle, Iran’s Masoud Esmaeilpoor beat Tomotsugu Ishida of Japan via criteria, 1-1 to take gold. The bronze medals went to Ganzorig Mandakhnaran of Mongolia and Ruslan Pliev of Uzbekistan.
Earlier, in an upset, world No.6 Mandakhnaran dropped a tight match to unseeded Ishida in the semifinals 2-1.
Iran’s other gold medal of the night came in the men’s 86kg Freestyle, with Alireza Karimimachiani beating Atsushi Matsumoto of Japan in the final. Umidjon Ismanov of Uzbekistan and Purevee Usukhbaatar of Mongolia took bronze medals
Iran could have had a hat-trick of gold medals, but Komeil Ghasemi lost to Aiaal Lazarev of Kyrgizstan in the 125kg Freestyle final. The bronze medals were clinched by Ziwei Deng of China and Farkhod Anakulov of Tajikistan. Organised by the Qatar Wrestling Federation, several top men and women wrestlers are in in action at the Asian Wrestling Championships.
Four Qatari grapplers — Abdulqader Omar, Jaafar Khan, Husain Raisi, Bakhit Sherif and Abdulrahman Ibrahim – are also taking part in the event.
Results:
Men’s freestyle -- 57kg
Gold: Erdenebat Vekhbayar (Mgl) bt Samat Nadyrbek Uulu (Kgz) 4-1
Bronze: Fumitaka Morishita (Jpn) bt Hak Jin Kong (PRK) 6-3
Bronze: Younes Firouz Sarmastidizaji (Iri) bt Nodirjon Safarov (Uzb) by fall
Men’s freestyle -- 65kg
Gold: Masoud Esmaeilpoor (Iri) bt Tomotsugu Ishida (Jpn) via criteria, 1-1
Bronze: Ganzorig Mandakhnaran (Mgl) bt Azat Mirakhimov (Kgz) 6-0
Bronze: Ruslan Pliev (Uzb) bt Ryong Hak Hwang (PRK) by tf,13-2
Men’s Freestyle -- 86kg
Gold: Alireza Karimimachiani (Iri) bt Atsushi Matsumoto (Jpn)
Bronze: Umidjon Ismanov (Uzb) bt Azamat Dauletbekov (Kaz), 8-6
Bronze: Purevee Usukhbaatar (Mgl) bt Muhammad Inam (Pak), 10-8
Men’s Freestyle -- 125kg
Gold: Aiaal Lazarev (Kgz) bt Komeil Ghasemi (Iri) by fall
Bronze: Ziwei Deng (Chn) bt Mohammed Sabah Abdulmalek Saklawe (Irq) by tf, 10-0
Bronze: Farkhod Anakulov (Tjk) bt Hitender (Ind) by criteria, 2-2
Women’s - 58kg
Gold: Kaori Icho (Jpn) bt Aisuluu Tynybekova (Kgz) by tf, 10-0
Bronze: Geeta Phogat (Ind) bt Thi Loan Nguyen (vie) by fall
BELOW:
Women’s winner Kaori Icho (second from left) poses with the silver and bronze medallists after their event.
