Nitesh Siwach wins Asian Games wrestling silver

Nitesh Siwach won silver in the men’s Greco-Roman 97kg wrestling event at the Asian Games in Nagoya on October 1, after defeating Mongolia’s Gankhuyag Ganbaatar 9-0 in the semifinal and losing the final to Japan’s Yuri Nakazato. His run ended India’s 64-year wait for a Greco-Roman finalist at the Games, according to reports, although the historical identity of the 1962 finalist is described inconsistently in the supplied accounts. Siwach’s semifinal victory by technical superiority secured his place in the final. Earlier, he had beaten Turkmenistan’s Amanberdi Agamammedov 7-1 in the quarterfinal. The final result, reported after the bout, meant Siwach took silver rather than the gold that earlier accounts had said he would contest for later that day. The accounts agree that no Indian Greco-Roman wrestler had reached an Asian Games final since 1962. They differ, however, on the name of that earlier finalist: one account identifies Maruti Mane, while another refers to Ganpat Andalkar. The historical comparison is therefore best stated by year without assigning the earlier achievement to either wrestler.