Asian Games: Nitesh Siwach ends 64-year wait, enters Greco-Roman wrestling final

Nitesh Siwach entered the men's Greco-Roman 97kg final at the Asian Games after a dominant 9-0 semifinal win over Mongolia's Ganbaataryn Gankhuyag, becoming the first Indian Greco-Roman wrestler to reach an Asiad final since 1962.

Nagoya: Nitesh Siwach stormed into the final of the Greco-Roman 97kg after a stellar 9-0 technical superiority win over Mongolia’s Ganbaataryn Gankhuyag in the semifinal at the Nagoya City Inae Sports Center in the ongoing Asian Games here on Thursday.

Nitesh has now become the first Indian to march into the final of the Greco-Roman wrestling at the Asiad since the 1962 Games, ending a 64-year wait for India. He will now face Yuri Nakazato of Japan in the gold medal clash later in the day.

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If Nitesh beats Nakazato, he will become the first Indian to win an Asiad gold in Greco-Roman wrestling after Ganpat Andalkar, who won the gold at the 1962 Asian Games in Jakarta.

Notably, Ganpat is the first and only Indian to win a Greco-Roman wrestling gold medal in Asian Games.

Meanwhile, Mansi will be playing the bronze medal match after losing her semifinal to Japan’s Nonoka Ozaki 0-6. She will be playing for the bronze against Mongolia’s Altjin Togtokh later in the day.

Nitesh, the 2026 Asian Championships silver medallist, was superb in the semifinal against the Hangzhou 2023 bronze medallist Ganbaatar, as he didn’t let his opponent take any point and raced to a 9-0 TSU win. He had earlier defeated Amanberdi Agamammedov of Turkmenistan in the quarterfinal by 7-1.

Meanwhile, Mansi had defeated Irina Kuznetsova in the pre-quarters 6-1 to begin her charge towards a medal. She then beat Jo Su-been of South Korea in the quarters 5-0 to make her way to the semis.

However, she ran against Nonoka Ozaki, the Paris Olympics bronze medallist and the Hangzhou Asiad winner, in the semifinal and went down to her 0-6 to get herself a chance to play for the bronze.

Sumit had earlier lost his Greco-Roman 60kg quarterfinal to Sajjad Abbaspourragani of Iran. The match was a closely contested one and was 1-1, but Sumit lost on VPO1.

Aman also lost his quarterfinal to Shahin Badaghimofrad of Qatar in men’s Greco-Roman 77kg, 0-9. He had earlier won his pre-quarters against Borgil Tuvshinbaatar of Mongolia 8-6. Neither of the Indian grapplers will get a chance for a bronze fight via repechage, as the opponents to whom they lost did not make it to the final as well.

India has already won a Greco-Roman wrestling medal in Aich-Nagoya through Sunil Kumar, who bagged bronze in the men’s 87kg event on Wednesday.