Indian grapplers Hardeep, Ashu and Aditya Kundu won a bronze medal each in 67kg, 72kg and 97kg Greco-Roman categories respectively on the second day of the Asian Wrestling Championships in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Ashu beat Syria’s Abdulkarim Mohammad Al-Hasan 8-1 while Kundu defeated Nao Kusaka of Japan 8-0 inside one and a half minutes in a lop-sided 72kg bronze medal bout. In the semi-final, Ashu lost against the Uzbek Makhmud Bakhshilloev due to a technical win awarded to the latter.

In the 97kg category, Hardeep defeated Beksultan Makhmudov 3-1

“It feels great to earn a Bronze medal in my first ever senior championship. I lost my semi-final bout as I invested a lot of time on attacking, which I worked upon in this bout with more emphasis on defence. I am happy that things panned out as planned,” said Ashu after his win.

This was Aditya’s first Asian Championship and his second ever international tournament. Aditya, who will now focus on his Olympics qualification, will aim to reduce his weight to 67kg to be able to compete at the Tokyo Olympics later this year.

“It feels good to have won the Bronze medal. I lost out on my gold medal match but I am happy I could play as per my strategy in this game and thereby win the bout,” said Aditya after his win.

Hardeep after his bronze said, “I was worried at one point when I was supposed to be on the ground as it is a weakness that I have been working upon. In the end, I was able to maintain my cool and hold the opponent off with a strong defensive strategy.”

India has so far won five medals in the championships, after Sunil Kumar’s historic gold in 87kg and Arjun Halakurki’s bronze in 55kg Greco-Roman category on Tuesday.

Gyanender, however, lost 0-6 in the 60kg Greco-Roman bronze medal bout on Wednesday. The gold was won by Kenichiro Fumita of Japan, who beat Kyrgyzstan’s Zholaman Sharshenkov 4-0.

The other bronze in 60kg was won by Mehdi Seifollah Mohsen Nejad who beat Kazakhstan’s Aidos Sultangali 4-3.

(With PTI inputs)