World Championship silver medallist wrestler Amit Kumar on Tuesday rued that a bad umpiring decision at the fag end of his bout cost him a deserving gold in the final of the 55kg category against Iran’s Hassan Farman Rahimi.
Asian champion Amit settled for a silver after going down 1-2 against Rahimi on the opening day of the World Wrestling Champion-ships at the Papp Laszlo Arena in Budapest, Hungary, on Monday.
The 19-year-old Asian champion said he was “disappointed” to have narrowly missed the opportunity to equal the record of two-time Olympic medallist and countrymate Sushil Kumar — the only Indian to have won a gold at the Worlds in the 2010 Moscow edition.
“It was a tough final against Rahimi and we both fought tooth and nail. The referee gave me a warning for engaging in defensive and shadow wrestling. In reality, it was the other way round as the Iranian was getting back on my moves. He was more defensive and the point should have come my way,” Amit lamented.
“In the first round, I took the first point and twice came close to pinning him down in the second round. We were tied at 1-1 in the first round. In the next round, the referee awarded him the crucial point.
“The referee was warning me for not attacking Rahimi but the official should have warned the Iranian for not responding to my moves. In the end moments of my bout (second three-minute round), he awarded him a point which left me disappointed. It was clear that I was the one who was more attacking through the bout,” he added.
Indians disappoint on day two
On Tuesday, Indian grapplers failed to impress as Bajrang (60kg), Pawan Kumar (84kg) and Hitender (120kg) made early exits from the competition.
While Yogeshwar Dutt’s replacement, Bajrang lost to Vladimir Vladimirov Dubov of Bulgaria 0-7, Hitender faced a 0-8 defeat at the hands of Georgia’s Geno Petriashvili in a one-sided affair after both the Indians were granted bye in the first round.
Pawan too suffered defeat in the opening bout but not before putting up a close fight (8-9) against Feng Zhang of China.