The Hindu : Sport / Olympic Games : Dismal start by Indians

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 28, 2004

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Sport - Olympic Games

Dismal start by Indians

ATHENS, AUG. 27. Indian grapplers could not have had a worse start, as four of them lost their opening bouts of the Olympic freestyle wrestling competition at the Ano Liossia Olympic Hall here on Friday.

In 55kg category, Yogeshwar Dutt lost 3-4 to Japan's Chikara Tanabe in the elimination round.

Dutt will next meet Namig Abdullayev of Azerbaijan in his second bout in Pool `D.'

Anuj Kumar gave India a poor start, losing his opening bout in the 84kg category elimination round to Iran's Majid Khodaei 1-5.

Anuj takes on Hidekazu Yokoyama of Japan, the third contender in pool `A,' in his next bout and another defeat will end the Indian wrestler's chances.

In the first bout, Khodaei took a 2-0 lead within three minutes. On resumption, Anuj managed a point in the fifth minute but that only seemed to spur the Iranian and he toyed with the Indian.

Sydney Olympics silver medallist, Uzbekistan's Artur Taymazov, made light work of India's Palwinder Singh Cheema and thrashed him 10-0 in the 120kg category.

Son of two-time Asian Games bronze medallist Sukchain Singh, Cheema put up a pathetic show and went down tamely in two minutes of the Pool `A' bout.

Cheema next grapples Marek Garmulewicz of Poland. The Polish wrestler had missed the bronze by a whisker in the previous edition of the Games in Sydney and had won the European Championship in Baku, Azerbaijan in 2002.

Ramesh Kumar put up a brave show, but his brilliant effort in the second half proved futile as he went down 8-10 to Apostolos Taskoudis of Greece in the 66kg category.

Taskoudis opened his account in the first minute and was up 6-3 before the Indian could find his rhythm.

Ramesh meets Armenian Zhirayr in his next bout in Pool `C' and he will have to win the bout in order to stay in the fray. — UNI

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