Asian Games: Sunil Malik wins Medal in Greco-Roman Wrestling after 13 Years

• 06 Oct 2023

Why In News?

On October 4, 2023, wrestler Sunil Malik from village Dabarpur in Sonipat district of Haryana won a medal for the country in the Greco-Roman 87 kg weight category in the ongoing Asian Games in Hangzhou, China after 13 years.

Key Points:

• Sunil Malik defeated Kyrgyzstan's Atabek Azisbekov 2-1 to win his first medal at the Asian Games.
• The Indian wrestler started his campaign with the Round of 16 at the Asian Games 2023, where he defeated China's Fei Peng 4-3.
• He then registered a big 9-1 win over Tajikistan's Sukhrob Abdulkhev. However, the reigning Asian champion suffered a 5-1 defeat against Iran's Nasser Alizadeh.
• Gyanendra of Fatehpur village in Sonipat, who is representing the country in the competition, lost to the wrestler of Iran and Neeraj of village Juan lost to the wrestler of Uzbekistan.
• The bronze medal won by Sunil was India's first medal in Greco-Roman wrestling since Ravinder Singh and Sunil Kumar Rana won bronze in Guangzhou, China 13 years ago. After that, in the year 2014 and 2018, no medal could be won in Greco-Roman.
• Earlier, Sunil had won a gold medal in the Romania Cup in August this year and a bronze medal in the Senior Asian Wrestling Championship held in Astana, Kazakhstan in April.
• Sunil Kumar had also won a gold medal at the 2020 Asian Championships in Delhi, ending India's 27-year wait.
• Sunil has also made the country proud by winning a gold medal in the Commonwealth Games in 2018, a silver in the World Ranking Series in 2019 and a silver medal in the Senior Asian Championship in 2019.