Already out of the race for gold and silver, India's Ram Vir (84kg) and Pradeep Kumar (66kg) stand a chance of bagging bronze medals for the country in their respective weight categories in the freestyle wrestling competitions of the Asian Games on Wednesday.
It was, however, curtains for Commonwealth Games gold medallist Narsingh Pancham Yadav, who crashed out in the quarterfinals of the 74kg at the Huagong Gymnasium. Ram Vir was the lone grappler among the trio to have made the semifinals, where he lost 1-3 to Jaesung Lee of South Korea.
He will now fight it out for the bronze medal in the 84kg against Usukhbaatar Purvee of Mangolia later in the day. Earlier, Ram Vir won his quarterfinal bout comfortably 5-0 against Aibek Usupov of Kyrgyzstan.
In the 66kg category, Pradeep lost out in the quarterfinals to Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu of Japan 0-3 but got another opportunity to make it count in the repechage round after Yonemitsu made it to the final in this weight class.
Pradeep will now face Azat Donbaev of Kyrgyzstan in repechage round 1 and a win there will guarantee him a place in the bronze medal play-off bout. He had earlier outplayed Yemen's Mustafa Alhaimi 5-0 in his opening bout of the day.
{{/usCountry}}Pradeep will now face Azat Donbaev of Kyrgyzstan in repechage round 1 and a win there will guarantee him a place in the bronze medal play-off bout. He had earlier outplayed Yemen's Mustafa Alhaimi 5-0 in his opening bout of the day.
{{/usCountry}}If luck favoured Ram Vir and Pradeep, it was disappointment for Narsingh as he lost 1-3 to Gombodorj Dorjvaanchig of Mongolia in the quarterfinals of the 74kg men's freestyle wrestling.
Unlike his other two compatriots, Narsingh is out of the repechage round as Gombodorj failed to reach the final of the event. Earlier in the day, Narsingh got the better of Husham Althaalebi of Iraq 3-1 to enter the last eight stage.