Asian Games: Iranian Wushu Player Displays Sportsmanship, Wins Hearts
The incident occurred during the wushu Sanda-60Kg category semi-finals between Bhanu Partap Singh and Irans Erfan Ahangarian.
Highlights
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Iran's Erfan Ahangarian not only won a medal but also earned respect
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Iran's Wushu player carried the injured Indian opponent
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Wushu players from India created history winning four bronze medals
India's Surya Bhanu Partap Singh took home a wushu bronze after losing his men's Sanda-60kg semi-finals bout to Iran's Erfan Ahangarian at the Asian Games 2018. Though the Indian could not advance further, the 21-year-old Erfan's show of sportsmanship made the loss a little less hurtful. In the semi-finals against Erfan, the Indian got injured midway through the bout and could not give his 100 percent in the match. However, Bhanu continued the match and was defeated by his Iranian opponent 2-0. At the end of the match, Erfan carried injured Bhanu Partap, who was limping, off the ring.
Di cabor wushu nomor Sanda 60 kg, Surya Bhanu Partap Singh mengalami cedera saat dikalahkan Erfan Ahangarian . Erfan lalu menggendong Surya ke luar arena. Memenangkan pertandingan sekaligus memenangkan nilai sportivitas. #AsianGames2018 pic.twitter.com/JJzRUZ5rAP
— Gie Wahyudi (@giewahyudi) August 22, 2018
Apart from Bhanu, India won three more wushu bronze medals, making this India's best wushu performance, in terms of a number of medals won, in the Asian Games.
Roshibina Devi (women's 60kg), Santosh Kumar (men's 56kg) Surya Bhanu Partap (men's 60kg) and Narender Grewal (men's 65kg) lost their respective semi-final Sanda bouts but took home bronze medals.
The previous best wushu performance was a silver and a bronze in the 2010 Guangzhou Games.
While India ended Day 4 of the Asiad with four bronze medals in wushu, shooter Rani Sarnobat beat all expectations to become India's first woman shooter with an Asian Games gold in women's 25-metre pistol event, earlier in the day. Rahi Sarnobat shot a total of 34 to claim the top honours.
Teenage star Manu Bhaker, who had qualified for the 25-metre event with a qualification games record score of 593, could not emulate her feat in the final as she finished sixth.