Greco-Roman wrestler Ashu bags bronze

Zagreb: Asian Championships bronze medallist Ashu clinched the men's 67kg bronze medal for India in the Greco Roman category on the concluding day of the Zagreb Open Ranking Series here on Sunday.

The 23-year-old Greco-Roman grappler defeated Lithuania's Adomas Grigaliunas 5-0 in the bronze play-off. Ashu's bronze medal win on Saturday was India's second medal in the ongoing ranking series.Under-23 world champion, freestyle wrestler Aman Sehrawat, had won the men's 57kg bronze on the inaugural day

Ashu suffered 0-9 loss at the hands of eventual finalist Reza Mahdi Abbasi of Iran in the qualification round to enter the repechage on late Saturday night.

The Indian grappler then registered a dominating 8-0 win over Hungary's Adam Phoilec before getting the better of Norway's Haavard Joergensen 9-0 to make the bronze medal bout.

In another Greco-roman bout, Sagar, competing in the 63kg bracket, lost his quarterfinal bout on point 0-6 against Iran's Aref Hossein Khoun Mohammadi. The Indian got a revival after Mohammadi reached the final. But he couldn't capitalise the opportunity as the Indian lost 1-7 in the repechage round to Austria's Aker Schmid Al Obaidi.

Earlier in the day, Asian championships bronze medallist Sushma Shokeen lost to Birmingham Commonwealth Games silver medallist Samantha Stewart via fall to crash out in the quarterfinals of the women's 53kg.

Canadian grappler Sushma had defeated Tetiana Profatilova of France and China's Yuhong Zhong in the earlier rounds.

More disappointment was in store for India as 72kg wrestler Reetika could not make it to the semi-finals through the round-robin format, while Kiran (women's 76kg) also failed to advance. Greco-Roman wrestlers Manjeet (55kg), Gyanender (60kg), Ankit Gulia (72kg) and Narinder Cheema (97kg) will be in action later on Sunday.