Sunil reaches gold medal bout in Rome on opening day of ranking series event

Twenty-year-old Greco-Roman grappler Sunil Kumar sprung a huge surprise by reaching gold medal round on his maiden senior-level appearance at first ranking series event of season, here on Wednesday.  In 87kg category, Sunil began with a 2-1 win over American Patrick Anthony Martinez and followed it up with a commanding victory by fall over Venezuala's Luis Eduardo Avenda Rojas in  semifinals. He will w fight it out with Hungary's Viktor Lorincz for top prize.

Indians are competing in six Olympic weight categories at this event.  Two more Indians are in medal contention with Ashu (67kg) and Sachin Rana (60kg) reaching bronze play-offs. Ashu beat Italy's Ignazio Sanfilippo by technical superiority in repech round after losing his quarterfinal 3-4 to Abouhalima Mohamed Elsaid.

Rana won a close quarterfinal bout 5-4 against Ukraine's  Ihor Kurochkin before losing his semi-final by technical superiority to Uznekistan's Islomjon Bakhramov. However, Naveen (130kg) and Hardeep Singh (97kg) exited after losing ir respective opening bouts.  Naveen lost his Qualification round 0-7 to China's Lingzhe Meng while Hardeep Singh was match to America' Tracy Gangelo Hancock, losing by technical superiority in pre-quarterfinal bout.