Nitesh Siwach Creates History Despite Final Defeat, Ends India's 64-Year Wait For Greco-Roman Silver

Nitesh Siwach missed out on a historic gold but secured India's first silver medal in Greco-Roman wrestling at the Asian Games since 1962, while Mansi Ahlawat lost the bronze-medal play-off in the women's 62kg event on Thursday. Nitesh, who had the opportunity to become India's first Greco-Roman gold medallist at the Asian Games in 64 years, went down 0-4 to Japan's home favourite Yuri Nakazato in the men's 97kg final. Mansi, meanwhile, was beaten 2-5 by Mongolia's Altjin Togtokh, whose strong defence stood out in the medal bout.

Malwa Singh (52kg) and Ganpat Andalkar (97kg) had won gold medals at the 1962 Asian Games, while Udey Chand (70kg), Sajjan Singh (87kg) and Maruti Mane (97kg) won silver medals.

In that edition, the wrestlers competed in both men's freestyle and Greco-Roman styles.

"I am very happy that I made it to the final. I could have done better, but I am still lacking. I will now focus on the World Championships and the 2028 Olympic qualifiers next year," Nitesh said later.

"I myself don't know exactly what happened in the match, but I could have done better. I could have won a gold medal, but I am still lacking. I will definitely improve," said Nitesh, son of a milkman from Jagsi village in Haryana's Panipat district.

Nitesh Needed to Be Aggressive

In the 97kg final, Nitesh tried to establish a two-on-one grip from the opening seconds but Nakazato refused to allow the Indian any attacking opportunity.

The Japanese wrestler opened the scoring by pushing Nitesh out and then forced him into the ground position for passivity.

The Indian defended stoutly, denying Nakazato a firm grip for a gut wrench, but the Japanese ended the first period with a 2-0 advantage and kept Nitesh in a headlock position towards the end.

Nakazato then destabilised Nitesh with a push before converting it into a takedown to stretch his lead to 4-0.

With a minute remaining, Nitesh needed to attack but Nakazato's disciplined defence gave the Indian little room to launch a scoring move.

Nitesh had entered the competition directly in the quarterfinals and defeated Turkmenistan's Amanberdi Agamammedov 7-1 before demolishing Mongolia's Gankhuyang Ganbaatar 9-0 by technical superiority in the first three-minute period of the semifinal.

Mansi, meanwhile, came agonisingly close to winning bronze after fighting back from an early deficit against Altjin.

The aggressive Mongolian pushed Mansi out twice to take a 2-0 lead and then defended a double-leg attack from the Indian. Mansi found another opening for a leg attack but Altjin again managed to thwart her effort.

Altjin was subsequently put on the clock for passivity and Mansi got on the scoreboard, leaving her needing just one successful scoring move to snatch the bronze.

The Indian launched a tremendous leg attack but Altjin summoned all her strength to survive the attempt. Mansi managed a push-out to reduce the deficit, only for Altjin to produce a takedown and seal the bronze medal.

"I did not wrestle well at all. Towards the end of the bout, I could not defend," Mansi said.

Mansi had earlier defeated Kyrgyzstan's Irina Kuznetsova 6-1 before losing 0-6 to Japan's Asian champion Nonoka Ozaki in the semifinals.

Sumit (60kg) and Aman Baroniya (77kg) had already been eliminated from medal contention after losing their respective quarterfinals.

Aman began with an 8-6 comeback win over Mongolia's Borgil Tuvshinbaatar but was stopped by Qatar's Shahin Badaghimofrad, while Sumit lost 1-1 on criteria to Iran's Sajjad Abbasporragani.

Shahin's subsequent defeat in the semifinal also closed the repechage route for Aman.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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