Asian Games 2018: Chance for Punia, Vinesh, Sushil

Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik will also gun for her first medal in the Asian Games after winning a bronze in the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games earlier this year. 

Five of the six Indian men’s freestyle wrestlers will be in action tomorrow with CWG gold medallist Bajrang opening his campaign in the 65kg category against Uzbekistan’s Sirojiddin Khasanov. The men’s Greco Roman and women’s competition will begin from Monday. Bajrang is coming into the Asian Games after winning three consecutive gold medals -- CWG (Gold Coast), Tbilisi Grand Prix (Georgia) and Yasar Dogu International (Istanbul) -- and will be an outright favourite to claim the yellow metal. 

In contrast, Sushil, India’s only athlete with two individual Olympic medals, is entering the field after losing his first bout in four years -- in Tbilisi Grand Prix in Georgia last month -- but sounded confident ahead of the competition. Sushil will open his campaign with a bout against Adam Batirov of Bahrain. 

Indian coaches said the competition is as tough as Olympics since mostly Asian wrestlers dominate the mat at big sporting events. 

“You have to make a decision about your move and attack in split second. It will be very tough. But our boys and girls have prepared well. They have trained hard in the last one year. No rest, no gap,” India’s men’s freestyle national coach Jagmander Singh said. 

National Greco Roman coach Kuldeep Singh said Harpreet Singh (87kg) is India’s best medal bet in Greco Roman style.

“Harpreet has got a good draw. He has worked really hard and showed immense improvement during training. He should get a medal this time,” he said. He also sounded confident about chances of Bajrang, who had won a silver in the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon.