Rajender Kumar (55kg) clinched the silver medal for India in a hard-fought bout in the Greco-Roman category at the Senior Asian Wrestling Championships at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex here on Saturday.
Rajender lost to Choi Kyun Jin of South Korea 1-0, 0-4, 0-1 in the final on a day dominated by the Koreans.
India also bagged a bronze in the 66kg category after Sunil Kumar won his repechage bout against Thailand’s Sutep Oomchompoo by a 5-2, 3-0 margin.
With Saturday’s triumphs, India’s tally in the championships rose to six — two gold, one silver and three bronze medals.
India now stand second in the Greco-Roman team championship standings with 29 points, four adrift of Korea.
However, India were unable to win two bronze medals after Manoj Kumar (84kg) and Dharmender Dalal (120kg) respectively lost their matches against Iran’s Davoud Abedinzadeh and Liu Deli of China.
Manoj lost 0-3, 0-1, while Liu defeated Dalal 1-0, 2-0.
Rajender started off well to take a 1-0 lead in the first round but thereafter he failed to keep up.
The Kurukshetra grappler seemed helpless in the second round, frequently losing his grip against Choi, who took a 4-1 lead. The next round was just a formality with the Korean stamping his authority.
“I wanted to win gold here but am happy that this tournament gave me good preparation for the Commonwealth Games,” the 2009 Commonwealth Championship gold medallist said.
Meanwhile, Korea’s Kim Hyeon Woo defeated Yensekhanov of Kazakhstan 0-2, 2-0, 2-0 to claim gold in the 66kg section.
In the 84kg category, another Korean Lee Se Yeol beat S. Norikatsu of Japan 1-0, 0-2, 3-0. Iran’s Mohammed Ghorbani defeated H.S. Almarafi of Jordan 1-0, 1-0 in straight rounds to take gold.