Sunil Kumar ends the 27-year wait of India for a Gold Medal in Greco-Roman

19 February 2020

Wrestler Sunil Kumar ended the 27-year long wait of India for a Gold Medal in the Greco-Roman style at the Asian Wrestling Championship yesterday.

Sunil won gold in the GR 87 KG Category on Tuesday by defeating Azat Salidinov of Kyrgyzstan 5-0 in the final and marked a historic moment. The last Gold Medal for India in the Greco-Roman Category at the Asian Championship came back in 1993 through Pappu Yadav and the nation had been on a dry spell ever since.

As for Sunil, he had won Silver Medal at last year’s championship and also showed off a great performance in the semi-finals where he came back from behind to get the win. He was down 1-8 at one point in the bout and came back strongly to get the win with a final score of 12-8. After the win, he said that he really worked hard for the result.

"I am feeling happy to have earned India's first Gold Medal today. I have worked really hard on my ground techniques and it feels good to have done better than my last year's performance," said Sunil [via India Today]

Elsewhere, Arjun Halakurki won Bronze Medal for India in the 55KG category as well after he defeated Donghyeok Won of Korea.

More from LockerRoom

Ritu Phogat set to make ONE championship return in February

IFMA Asian Muay Thai Championship Final Results: India finishes with 12 Medals

Dhwani Advani talks about her medal win at the Asian Muay-Thai Championship