DOHA: Uzbekistan’s Elmurat Tasmuradov defeated Yuh Won Choi of North Korea to win the 59kg Greco-Roman gold medal, in what was a spectacular bout that lighted up the Senior Asian Championships in Doha yesterday.
At the Aspire Dome, the 59kg contestants were impressive on the fourth day of the 30-nation event, attacking competitors every moment on the mat.
Tasmuradov, a 2014 world bonze medalist jumped out to a 2-0 lead on 2013 world champion Yuh when he countered an arm spin by the DPR-Korean wrestler to send him flying through the air exposed to the mat.
In response Yuh attacked on the restart, arm-dragging Tasmuradov for what seemed like a certain two-point take down until Tasmuradov performed a standing head roll into a cartwheel, exposing Yuh’s back and earning two rebuttal points of his own for the action.
The score was 4-2 when Yuh found a deep front headlock versus Tasmuradov only to find the Uzbeki still had another trick left, locking Yuh’s arms with his elbows, arching his back and flipping Yuh over his head for a four-point exposure.
Yuh would lose the challenge and cede a point before earning a takedown in the second period and dropping the bout 9-4.
Uzbekistan earned their second title of the penultimate day when Rustam Assakalov took a tightly-contested 4-4 match via criteria over Nursultan Tursynov of Kazakhstan. Assakalov was losing on criteria until Tursynov absorbed a late caution for blocking action.
The last gold medal at the women’s wrestling was captured by Hiroe Suzuki of Japan who resisted a good fightback by Odonchimeg Badrakh of Mongolia to secure the 3-1 victory in the 75kg finals. It was second Asian championships triumph by Suzuki.
Japan won the women’s team title with 74 points. China took second place with 64 and Kazakhstan third with 61 points.
THE PENINSULA
