Freestyle grapplers Sushil Kumar [Images] and Palvinder Cheema moved into the bronze medal play-offs in the 66 and 120 kg categories respectively at the Asian Games in Doha on Thursday.
Two Kazakh grapplers stand in their way. While Kumar is set to take on Leonid Spridonov, Cheema will clash with Marid Matalinov.
Kumar progressed to the bronze medal round after winning his quarter-final bout against Arslan Khutaliyev of Uzbekistan and losing to Takafumi Kojima of Japan [Images] in the semis.
The Indian had beaten Al-Qubaisi Mohamed of the United Arab Emirates in his opening bout.
Cheema progressed to the bronze medal bout after outclassing Kyrgyzstan's Urmat Mustapaev by a fall in the first bout before losing to Iranian strongman Masoumi Valadi Ferdin in the quarter-finals.
He then got past Iraq's Shaheen Mohamed in the repechage.
However, two other freestyle wrestlers -- Vinod Kumar (55 kg) and Anuj Kumar (84 kg) -- failed to reach the medal rounds.
Vinod defeated Sumreat Hun of Cambodia 3-1 in his first bout but lost his quarter-final bout to Taghi Dadashi of Iran and bowed out.
Anuj ousted Marcus Girard Valda of the Philippines in the first round, then lost to Iran's Yezdani Reza in the quarters and later against Kazakh opponent Magomed Kurugliyev in the repechage and was eliminated.
Doha Asian Games 2006: The Complete Coverage
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