Kabaddi team shines;
wrestling hopes end

Defending champions India started their campaign in emphatic fashion, winning both their kabbadi preliminary league matches at the 14th Asian Games on Friday.

While the Indians routed Malaysia 32-9 in the first match, they spanked lowly Japan 39-3 in the second match of the day.

However, India's hopes of a medal in wrestling suffered a jolt when Ravinder Singh lost to Japan's Makoto Sasamoto in the preliminary round of the men's 60kg Greco-Roman event.

Ravinder Singh could not pose much of a challenge to his much superior opponent, who won by a comfortable 4-0 margin at the Yangsan Gymnasium.

Ravinder, who was the only Indian in the fray, could not secure a single point against Makoto, who displayed very good techinques to pin the Indian to the mat for most part of the contest.

The gold medal in the 60kg category was bagged by South Korea's Kyuing Li Kang, who defeated Uzbekistan's Dilshod Aripov by a 3 -1 margin.

In the men's 74kg greco roman event, South Korea's Jin Soo Kim took the title by defeating Kazkhstan's Danil Khalimov 3-1 while Uzbekistan's Aleksey Cheglakov prevailed over South Korea's Myung Suk Park 3-0 to bag the gold medal in the men's greco roman 96kg category.