Nitesh Siwach wins Asian Games silver as India’s Greco-Roman wait continues
India’s Nitesh Siwach won silver in the men’s 97kg Greco-Roman wrestling final at the Asian Games after losing 4-0 to Japan’s Yuri Nakazato. His result was India’s best in the category and came as the country continued to await its first Greco-Roman Asian Games champion since 1962.
Nitesh Siwach won a silver medal in the men’s 97kg Greco-Roman wrestling competition at the Asian Games after losing 4-0 to Japan’s Yuri Nakazato in the final on Thursday. Nitesh reached the final with two convincing victories earlier in the day, but could not break through Nakazato’s defence. The Japanese wrestler opened the scoring by pushing him out and later added a point after Nitesh was placed in the ground position for passivity.
Nakazato led 2-0 at the interval. After the restart, he disbalanced Nitesh with a push and converted the opening into a takedown to extend his advantage to 4-0. Nitesh attacked late in the bout, but Nakazato held firm.
The silver was India’s best-ever result in the 97kg category and ended the country’s wait for a medal in that weight class. India’s last Greco-Roman Asian Games gold medals came in 1962, when Malwa Singh and Ganpat Andalkar won their respective events. Nitesh entered the competition in the quarterfinals and defeated Turkmenistan’s Amanberdi Agamammedov 7-1.
He then beat Mongolia’s Gankhuyang Ganbaatar 9-0 by technical superiority in the semifinal, securing his place in the final. Nitesh said the medal was particularly meaningful because of his father’s encouragement. He also said the lack of a previous medal in his weight category had created pressure, but that he trusted his training.
India’s Mansi Ahlawat missed a medal in the women’s 62kg category. She lost her semifinal 6-0 to Japan’s Nonoka Ozaki and then fell to Mongolia’s Altjin Togtokh in the bronze-medal bout. Aman Baroniya’s campaign in the men’s 77kg event ended in the quarterfinals after he had earlier recovered from a 6-2 deficit to beat Mongolia’s Borgil Tuvshinbaatar 8-6.
This independently written report is based on information supplied by the named publisher. Vertrix News has not independently verified the source report.