Hardeep loses his Greco Roman bout to crash out

Rio, Aug 16 (PTI) India’s Greco Roman wrestler HardeepSingh lost his opening round bout in the 98 kg category bytechnical points to Turkey’s Ildem Cenk and crashed out of thecompetition at the Rio Olympics, here today. The Turkish wrestler won the bout 2-1 despite a stiffresistance from the 25-year-old Indian. Hardeep’s hopes ofmaking it to the repechage was blown away when Cenksubsequently lost to Artur Aleksanyan of Armenia 0-9 in thesemi-final. Earlier, the opening round was fought well by Hardeep andhe, in fact, was given an advantage by the referee due topassive fighting from the Turk. While Hardeep pinned his rival to the ground, he failedto do the required flip which would have earned him technicalpoints. To his horror, in the very next round, it was the Turk’sturn to get an advantage and he did the flip effectively toget the required two points. In the final round, Hardeep did pull a point back but itwasn’t enough and the 20-year-old opponent came up trumps. PTIKHS AHKHS