After suffering a shock defeat in the first round of the ongoing Asian Games, two-time Olympic medallist, wrestler Sushil Kumar, has exited the games.
The 35-year-old never looked comfortable on the mat and speed, which was his forte, deserted him as he struggled with his knee injury throughout the match.
'I should not have attacked after 3 minutes'
"It's all part of the game, I am focusing on my next target now and I will keep working on my body, I should not have attacked after 3 minutes, should have just stuck to counter," Sushil Kumar said after the loss.
On the other hand, another medal contender Bajrang Punia is assured of a medal as he made it to the finals of the 65 kg freestyle wrestling event with three consecutive performances, clinching all three matches by technical superiority.
He defeated Uzbekistan's Sirojiddin Khasanov 13-3 and then followed it up with another top-notch performance as he cruised past Tajikistan's Abdulqosim Fayziev 12-2 to storm into the last four.
He later faced off Mongolia's Batmagnai Batchuluun 10-0 to win his third straight bout via technical superiority.
Punia had won a silver medal in the 61 kg category back in the 2014 Asain Games in Incheon. He has been in red-hot form recently as he won gold in the 65 kg category in the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast earlier this year.
Another wrestler, Pawan Kumar has been in cruise control as he belted away Vuthy Heng of Cambodia 8-0 in his first bout. However, he slipped up against Iran's Hassan Yazdanicharati 0-11.
The Iranian entered the final and as a result Pawan entered the repechage and beat Indonesia's Fahriansyah in the Repechage Round 2 to enter the bronze medal match.
Another wrestler, Mausam Khatri entered the second round when he received a bye in the first round of 97 kg, but then lost his quarter-final match to Ibragimov Magomed of Uzbekistan 0-8.
