Hangzhou [China], October 7 (ANI): Indian wrestler Deepak Punia beat Uzbekistan’s Javrail Shapiev 4-3 within the males’s freestyle 86kg semifinal on the Asian Games 2023 on Saturday.
With this win Deepak confirmed a medal by sealing his passage to the ultimate.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympian, Deepak will face Rio 2016 Olympics champion Hassan Yazdani of Iran.
The Iranian grappler can be a three-time world champion — 2017, 2019 and 2021 — and the defending Asian Games champion on this class, as per Olympics.com.
Deepak’s gold medal bout with Hassan Yazdani will begin after 2.30 pm IST on Saturday.
Earlier, Deepak prevailed 7-3 towards Japanese grappler Shota Shirai within the quarter-final bout.
Deepak Punia had crushed Indonesia’s Randa Riandesta 11-0 and Bahrain’s Magomed Magomed R Sharipov 3-2 within the pre-quarterfinals and qualification rounds, respectively, at Hangzhou.
Meanwhile, fellow Indian wrestler Yash misplaced to Tajikistan’s Magomet within the males’s freestyle 74kg quarterfinal on Saturday.
Another grappler, Sumit, went down preventing to Kyrgyzstan’s Aiaal Lazarev within the males’s freestyle 125kg pre-quarterfinals whereas Vicky misplaced to Kazakhstan’s Alisher Yergali in his males’s freestyle 97kg pre-quarterfinals. (ANI)