India’s Sunil Kumar clinched a bronze medal in the Greco-Roman 87kg weight category at the Asian Wrestling Championships 2025 here on Tuesday, opening the country’s medal tally at the prestigious event.
The 25-year-old Indian grappler began his campaign with a commanding 10-1 victory over Tajikistan’s Sukhrob Abdulkhaev in the quarterfinals. However, he fell short in the semifinal, losing 1-3 to Iran’s Yasin Ali Yazdi. Sunil made a strong comeback in the bronze medal bout, defeating China’s Jiaxin Huang 3-1 to secure his place on the podium.
This marks Sunil Kumar’s fifth senior medal at the Asian Wrestling Championships. He previously won silver in 2019 before creating history in 2020 by ending India’s 27-year wait for a gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling at the continental event. The Indian wrestler also bagged bronze medals in both 2022 and 2023.
His latest achievement follows his success at the Hangzhou 2023 Asian Games, where he earned India’s first Greco-Roman wrestling medal since 2010, when Ravinder Singh and Sunil Kumar Rana had secured bronze.
On an otherwise tough day for the Indian contingent, the remaining four Greco-Roman wrestlers – Nitin (55kg), Umesh (63kg), Sagar Thakran (77kg), and Prem (130kg) – failed to secure podium finishes. Nitin, Umesh, and Prem were eliminated in the qualification rounds, while Sagar suffered a defeat via technical superiority against Jordan’s Amro Sadeh in the quarterfinals.
India will see further action in Greco-Roman wrestling today, with Sumit (60kg), Neeraj (67kg), Kuldeep Malak (72kg), Rahul (82kg), and Nitesh (97kg) set to compete.
Meanwhile, India’s Paris 2024-bound Olympians, Reetika Hooda (women’s 76kg) and Antim Panghal (women’s 53kg), will take the mat on Thursday and Friday, respectively, as they look to add to India’s medal tally at the championships.
