Tayyab beaten in 97kg bout

KARACHI: Pakistan's Tayyab Raza faced exit when he lost to Tajikistan's Rustam Iskanadari in the 97 kilogramme freestyle competitions quarter-final of the Asian Wrestling Championships in New Delhi on Saturday. Tayyab, as expected did not offer tough resistance to his strong rival, conceding the fight 5-12.

On Sunday (today) Pakistan's promising youngster M Bilal will face India's Rahul Balasaheb Aware in the qualification phase of the 61kg competitions. Similarly, Zaman Anwar of Pakistan will also show his mettle in the 125kg quarter-final when he will begin his journey with his fight against Khuderbulga Dorjkhand of Mongolia also on Sunday. Pakistan have fielded only three grapplers in the continental event which does not serve as Olympic qualifiers. However a federation can field wrestlers in only those weight categories in the Asian qualifiers for Olympics in which its wrestlers will feature in the Asian Championships. Pakistan initially aimed to field four wrestlers in the New Delhi event but Abdul Rehman had to stay away at the eleventh hour due to injury.