Zouhaier Sghaier 2022 | Gyanender, Sachin Sahrawat and Sunil Kumar win Greco-Roman gold
At the Zouhaier Sghaier Ranking Series 2022 in Tunis, Tunisia, ex-Asian champions Sunil Kumar, Gyanender, and Sachin Sahrawat each won a gold medal in their respective Greco-Roman weight classes. As the two wrestlers listed for these events, Sunil Kumar and Gyanender directly competed in finals.
Mohamed Skander Missaoui of Tunisia lost against Sunil Kumar 2-1. Oussama Nasr of Tunisia was defeated by Gyanender because of technical dominance. The 63kg division, which was contested in a Nordic round format because there were just four wrestlers in the lineup, saw Sachin Sahrawat edge Neeraj for the gold medal.
When there are less than six athletes competing in a weight category, the Nordic round system is used. Instead of knockouts, wrestlers compete against each other in a round-robin system. Neeraj defeated Sachin Sahrawat 3-1 in the first round, but Sahrawat rebounded to win over Volkan Cakil of Turkey 8-0 and Koussay Melki of Tunisia 10-0.
Neeraj was forced to accept silver as Volkan Cakil won their final match 11-8, giving Sachin Sahrawat the gold. In the three-wrestler fields, Arjun Halakuri (60 kg) and Deepanshu (97 kg) also won silver, while Naveen (130 kg) earned bronze.
Arjun Halakuri, who earned a bronze medal at the Asian Championships, defeated Salim Hamdi, a local favorite, 13-9 while defeating Algerian opponent Abdelkarim Fergat. In his third-round match, Arjun Halakuri was defeated 9-0 by Ayhan Karakus of Turkey, earning himself a silver medal. Deepanshu participated in the Nordic round competition as well. The Indian won his first round 8-3 over Mohamed Dhia Jabri of Tunisia before falling just short 2-1 to Muhutdin Saricicek of Turkey, who would go on to win the gold medal.
After that, Deepanshu defeated Algerian Adem Boudjemline 3-1 to win the silver medal. Sakshi Malik, a bronze medalist from Rio 2016, will compete in the women's 62kg weight class on Friday. Beginning on Saturday, men's freestyle wrestlers will compete.
