London : India’s male wrestlers started their Olympic campaign on a disappointing note with both Amit Kumar and Narsingh Pancham Yadav crashing out of their respective weight categories in freestyle wrestling at the ExCel Arena here Friday.
The 18-year-old Amit Kumar, the youngest ever Indian wrestler in Olympics, raised hopes of a bronze medal as he moved into Repechage 2. But he lost 0-3 to Bulgarian Radoslav Marinov Velikov, a Beijing Games bronze medallist, failing to qualify for the 55kg category’s bronze medal match.
His compatriot Narsingh Yadav also bowed out, losing his first round bout in the men’s 74kg event.
Amit Kumar, who had received a first round bye, won 3-1 over Iran’s Hassan Sabzali Rahimi in the pre-quarterfinal.
The Indian, however, failed to repeat his performance and lost his quarterfinal bout 1-3 to Georgian Vladimer Khinchegashvili.
However, it was Khinchegashvili, who gave Amit Kumar a lifeline by qualifying for the final round. But the Indian found it tough against the Bulgarian, a former World Champion.
Meanwhile, Narsingh Yadav was not so lucky as he suffered a first round loss to Canadian Matthew Judah Gentry. He went down 1-3 to Gentry.
Gentry lost his quarterfinal bout 1-3 to American Jordan Ernest Burroughs that ended Narsingh Yadav’s hopes of making it to the repechage round.