Sujeet rallies from 9-2 to win Asian Games 65kg gold
India's first wrestling gold at the Games since 2018 came from seven points down.
Sujeet of India won the Asian Games freestyle 65kg gold medal, beating Abdulmazhid Kudiev of Tajikistan 10-9 in the final, per United World Wrestling. UWW says Sujeet trailed 9-2 before the comeback. It is India's first wrestling gold at the Asian Games since 2018.
He comeback from 9-2 to win 10-9 in the 65kg final
First gold for India in wrestling since 2018
That is a seven point hole erased in a senior level freestyle final, and the winning margin was a single point. UWW framed it plainly in its post on the result.
The rest of the 65kg podium
Nachyn Kuular of Kazakhstan took one bronze with a win over Kwang Jin Kim of North Korea. Kotaro Kiyooka of Japan took the other, beating Abbas Ebrahimzadeh of Iran 3-2 in a bout that stayed tight the whole way. Those are the four medalists UWW listed in its 65kg medal bout results.
Kiyooka getting pushed to a 3-2 result and finishing in the bronze round, rather than the final, is the other piece of the weight worth noting for anyone tracking 65kg internationally. Iran leaving the weight without a medal is the same.
Why it lands for India
The 2018 line is the part that travels. India has had Asian Games wrestling medals in the years since, but UWW's post is specific that this is the country's first wrestling gold at the Games since that edition, and it belongs to a 65kg freestyler who was being beaten 9-2.
It also lands in a strong week for India on the mat at these Games, after Nitesh reached the Greco final, the country's first in 64 years.
Nobody has said more about how Sujeet turned the final, and UWW has not posted a scoring sequence beyond the 9-2 deficit and the 10-9 result.
What to watch: the rest of India's freestyle entries at the Games, and whether Kudiev gets a rematch with Sujeet on the senior circuit.