KARACHI: Pakistan capped off their Asian Wrestling Championship journey on a disappointing note when the country’s top young wrestler Mohammad Bilal lost the bronze medal fight in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Saturday.
Bilal, the cousin of the seasoned wrestler Mohammad Inam, played badly in the bronze medal fight against Japan’s Yuto Takeshita who won it 7-0.
Earlier, Bilal opened his 57 kilogramme journey in style when he got the better of Daulet Temirzhanov of Kazakhstan. The qualification clash had been tied 8-8 but Bilal won it as he captured the final points.
In the first round, it was levelled 2-2. Daulet did well in the first one and a half minute of the second round and was leading 8-4.
However, Bilal staged a remarkable fightback and levelled the score 8-8 which earned him a much-needed victory.
In the quarter-final, Bilal lost to Alireza Nosratolah Sarlak of Iran 3-0.
The Iranian was tough but Bilal fought bravely against him before losing. However, Bilal was given a repechage fight in which he defeated Rozgeldi Seyidov of Turkmenistan 9-4 to set a bronze medal fight with Takeshita.
Meanwhile, Haroon Abid failed to impress on his continental event debut when he went 6-1 down to the 2017 Asian bronze medallist Seo Min-Wan of South Korea in the 97 kilogramme qualification fight.
Bilal and Haroon will now be put in a camp in Lahore for the next month’s world qualifying round for Olympics in Bulgaria.
Inam missed the Asian Championship because of a knee injury which he developed in the Asian Qualifying round for Olympics also in Almaty a few days ago.
Commenting on Pakistan’s performance in the Asian Championship, Pakistan Wrestling Federation (PWF) secretary Arshad Sattar said that Bilal played three very good fights. “Bilal played well in his three fights but his bronze medal fight was very bad,” Arshad told ‘The News’.
“He lacks experience. We get little exposure but I am confident he will qualify for the Olympics next month through the world qualifiers in Bulgaria,” he added.
“Haroon Abid had trained in Japan and we wanted to check him but he did not impress,” Arshad said.
The wrestlers will return on Monday (tomorrow) and will be put in a camp at the Punjab College Lahore for the world qualifiers.
“Training will be held from 11pm to 1am,” Arshad said.
The duo, to be accompanied by Arshad as manager, will fly out of Lahore for Bulgaria on May 5 to take part in the world qualifiers to be hosted at Sofia from May 6-9 — the last chance for the national grapplers to earn Olympics seats.
Pakistani wrestlers failed to earn an Olympics berth in the Asian qualifiers in Almaty a few days ago. The nation had skipped the 2019 World Championship due to financial issues. The global event also served as Olympics qualifiers.