Deepak, Anil and Ritu in bronze-medal round of Asian C'ship

India's Greco-Roman wrestlers Deepak and Anil Kumar entered the bronze medal round of their respective categories while Ritu also made the cut in woman's 63kg at the Asian Championship here today.

Deepak lost his quarterfinal bout to Iran's Afshin Nemat Byabangard 1-3 in 71kg but still made it to the bronze medal play-off as the Iranian reached the gold medal round.

Anil Kumar also faced a similar fate during the quarterfinals of 85kg, going down to Japan's Atsushi Matsumoto 0-7, but was fortunate to enter the bronze medal round after the Japanese grappler ensured a place in the gold medal round.

While Deepak will take on Nurgazy Asangulov of Kazakhstan, Anil will be up against Uzbekistan's Muhammadali Shamsiddinov later today.

In women's 63kg category, Ritu defeated Min-Wen Hou of Taipei 5-4 to storm into the semifinal but subsequently lost to Battsetseg Soronzonbold of Mongolia 2-12 by fall verdict.
Owing to Soronzonbold making the gold medal round, Ritu will now fight for a bronze medal when she faces Jinyoung Hang of Korea later in the evening.

Another Greco-Roman and woman wrestler in the fray today -- Gyanender (59kg) and Jyoti (75kg) -- bowed out of the tournament after losing their respective bouts early.
Gyanender lost in the qualification round itself when he was comprehensively beaten by Kaly Sulaimanov of Kazakhstan 1 -5.

Jyoti lost her semifinal bout to Masako Furuichi of Japan 0-10. However, she had cleared the qualification round earlier by outplaying Seoyeon Jeong of Korea 5-1.