XI'AN, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese wrestlers could have had two chances to give the home crowd a gold medal at the Asian Wrestling Championships being held here from April 23-28, but they failed and pocketed two slivers and one bronze on Wednesday.
During the qualification round of men's freestyle 74kg event, bronze medalist of 2017 Chinese National Games Luo Yin was defeated by Japanese wrestler Yuhi Fujinami 11-7, while the host's 86kg player Lin Zushen failed to enter the last four.
In the semis round, China's 92kg player Sun Xiao was eliminated by India's Viky Viky. Liu Minghu smashed his 61kg rival Yudai Fujita of Japan. The world No.2 Liu Yushan went through the afternoon session unscathed after scoring a 10-0 win in the 125kg event, giving China two of its five wrestlers in action in the competition to make it to the gold medal matches.
Liu suffered a 2-1 defeat against Beham Ehsanpoor of Iran in the gold medal game, earning China's first silver medal at the competition. Although Liu failed to pocket any medal at the 2018 Asian Game, he told Xinhua that he was satisfied with the result.
"My coaches and teammates helped me impress my skills recently, and the crowd's cheers helped me a lot too. I will try my best to make my Olympic debut in 2020," Liu said.
Sun added a bronze for the host after Muhammad Inam of Pakistan withdrew his bronze final. Alireza Karimimachiani won the 92kg event after a 11-0 flash victory when the 2018 Asian Games gold medalist facing against Viky Viky.
In the 125kg final match, Deng led Iranian Yadollah Mohebi 1-0 at the end of the first period, but Mohebi turned the table and locked the score to 2-1 before the final whistle.
At last, China won two silvers and two bronzes in men's freestyle wrestling competition.
Kamran Ghasempour won the 86kg title for Iran. Daniyar Kaisanov contributed a title to his homeland Kazakhstan in the 74kg event.
The competition continues on April 25 with five women's wrestling weights.