Nagoya, India’s Greco Roman wrestler Sunil Kumar was left to fight for a bronze medal after losing his men’s 87kg semifinals by technical superiority to Japan’s Taizo Yoshida while Nisha Dahiya was yet again shut out by North Korea’s Sol Gum Pak here on Wednesday.
Incidentally, Nisha had lost to Pak at the Paris Olympics quarterfinals also after suffering an injury. In the second period, Nisha got a two pointer to level the match. No wrestler could score a point after that and Pak was declared winner on criteria . If Pak reaches the final, it will open a repechage route for Nisha.
Sunil, the bronze medal winner at Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023, began with a confident technical superiority win over Tajikistan’s Muhammad Sultonzoda but was no match to the Japanese World Championship bronze medallist. In the last-four bout, Yoshida led 6-0 after the first period and added five more points to move to the gold medal match, not giving a single scoring opportunity to Sunil. Nisha was leading 8-2 in that bout but left the mat in tears due to an elbow injury as she lost 8-10.
