Asian Games: Wrestler Deepak Punia settles for silver in 86kg category

Deepak Punia lost against Hasan Yazdani of Iran by 0-10 and settled for silver in the ongoing Asian Games.

Hangzhou:Wrestler Deepak Punia's gold medal hopes were crashed in the final of the men's 86kg category event as he went down against Iran's Hasan Yazdani by a scoreline of 0-10.

Yazdani turned out to be too tough for the Indian wrestler from the start as he picked first two points by pushing Deepak out of the bounds. Further, Deepak was called for passivity and he lay in a passive position but Yazdani was unable to flip the Indian wrestler. He further continued his dominance and took an 8-0 lead a few minutes later.

Yazdani didn't stop there and continued dishing out some brilliant moves in the bout. He executed a takedown on the Indian wrestler and the bout ended with the technical superiority favouring the Iranian wrestler. It was the second time when Deepak locked horns against Yazdani who is a two-time Olympic medallist and eight-time World Championship medalist.

The two wrestlers squared off earlier in the 2019 World Championships in Nur Sultan but Deepak conceded the bout due to a foot injury. Also, with the fixture, India's wrestling campaign ended at the Asian Games with six medals but not earning a gold would disappoint them. Meanwhile, India's three other wrestlers concluded their campaign without earning any medals.