Asian Games: Nitesh Reaches Greco-Roman Final, Ends India's 64-Year Wait

Nitesh produced a dominant performance at the Nagoya City Inae Sports Center, defeating Mongolia's Ganbaataryn Gankhuyag 9-0 by technical superiority in the semifinal. He will face Japan's Yuri Nakazato in the gold medal bout later on Thursday.

A victory over Nakazato would make Nitesh only the second Indian to win an Asian Games gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling. The only previous Indian to achieve the feat was Ganpat Andalkar, who won the 87kg gold at the 1962 Asian Games in Jakarta.

Andalkar remains India's first and only Greco-Roman wrestling gold medallist at the Asian Games.

Nitesh, a silver medallist at the 2026 Asian Wrestling Championships, had earlier defeated Turkmenistan's Amanberdi Agamammedov 7-1 in the quarterfinals. He then dominated Gankhuyag, who had won bronze at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, without allowing his opponent to score a point.

In the women's competition, Mansi will compete for a bronze medal after losing her semifinal to Japan's Nonoka Ozaki 0-6. She will face Mongolia's Altjin Togtokh in the bronze-medal bout later in the day.

Mansi began her campaign with a 6-1 victory over Irina Kuznetsova in the pre-quarterfinals before defeating South Korea's Jo Su-been 5-0 in the quarterfinals.

Her semifinal opponent Ozaki, the Paris Olympics bronze medallist and Hangzhou Asian Games champion, proved too strong as Mansi was unable to score.

India's Sumit was eliminated from medal contention after losing his Greco-Roman 60kg quarterfinal to Iran's Sajjad Abbaspourragani. The bout was tied 1-1, but Sumit lost on VPO1.

In the men's 77kg category, Aman was beaten 0-9 by Qatar's Shahin Badaghimofrad in the quarterfinals. He had earlier defeated Mongolia's Borgil Tuvshinbaatar 8-6 in the pre-quarterfinals.

Neither Sumit nor Aman will have a route into the bronze-medal bout through repechage as the wrestlers who defeated them failed to reach the respective finals.

India has already secured a Greco-Roman wrestling medal at the Aichi-Nagoya Games, with Sunil Kumar winning bronze in the men's 87kg category on Wednesday.