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Aman Sehrawat and Antim Panghal stormed into the respective finals of the men's freestyle 57 kg and women's 53 kg categories, giving India two more medal opportunities in wrestling at the Asian Games here on Saturday.
Aman produced a stunning comeback in his semifinal against Kyrgyzstan's Aiaal Belolyubskii, recovering from a 2-6 deficit after the opening round to score 12 points in the second and seal a 14-8 victory, according to ESPN. The Indian had earlier begun his campaign with a dominant 20-0 win over Japan's Yamato Ogawa in the round of 16 before defeating Kazakhstan's Nurdanat Aitanov 12-1 in the quarterfinals. Antim also staged a comeback in her semifinal against China's Zhang Jin. After going 0-1 down, the Indian turned the contest around with a strong second round, moving ahead 6-1 to book her place in the final of the women's 53 kg category. Earlier, Antim had defeated Kazakhstan's Shugyla Omirbek 9-0 in the round of 16 before registering an 8-0 win over Uzbekistan's Sakibjamal Esbosynova in the quarterfinals. Deepak Punia, meanwhile, missed out on a place in the final of the men's freestyle 97 kg category after suffering a narrow 8-9 defeat to Uzbekistan's Sherzod Poyonov in the semifinals. He will now compete for the bronze medal. Deepak had advanced to the semifinals after Hong Kong's Li Wui Fung Vincent forfeited their quarterfinal bout. He had earlier defeated China's Junpeng Zhou 12-2 in the round of 16. Sagar Jaglan had earlier suffered a 0-10 defeat to Iran's Yones Emamichoghaei in the men's freestyle 74 kg quarterfinal. But he managed to secure a win in the repechage, when he defeated Uzbekistan's Razambek Jamalov 7-3 and advanced into the bronze medal bout for the men's freestyle 74 kg. The medal bouts will all be in the afternoon session, starting around 2.30 PM IST. In India, another wrestler competing on Day 14 was Manisha Bhanwala, who lost her women's 57 kg quarterfinal to Japan's Akari Fujinami. She had entered the quarterfinals with an 8-0 win over South Korea's Youngjin Kwon. Manisha's chances of entering the repechage ended after Fujinami was herself beaten 0-10 by North Korea's Son Il Sim in the semifinals, bringing the Japanese wrestler's long unbeaten run to an end. In archery, Dhiraj Bommadevara progressed to the semifinals of the men's individual recurve event after edging Amirkhon Sadikov 6-2 in the quarterfinals. The top-seeded Indian held his nerve in the final set, shooting a 10 with his last arrow to seal victory and move within one win of securing an individual medal at the Asian Games. Dhiraj will now look to continue India's strong run in recurve archery as he bids for a place in the gold medal contest. (ANI)
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