Malik earns Olympic quota in men's 125kg freestyle wrestling

Sofia (Bulgaria), May 7 (IANS) India's Sumit Malik has won the Olympic quota place in the men's 125kg freestyle wrestling event by reaching the final of the World Olympic Games Qualifying Tournament here.Malik beat Jose Daniel Diaz of Venezuela 5-0 to set up the title clash with Russia's Sergei Kozyrev.Finalists in each of the weight categories in this tournament are eligible to win a quota place for the Tokyo Olympics.In his first qualification round, Malik beat Aiaal Lazarev of Kyrgyzstan 2-2 while in his second round he defeated Alexandr Romanov of Moldovan 2-2. In the quarterfinals, he outclassed Rustam Iskandari of Tajikistan 19-5.Malik is the fourth Indian freestyle wrestler to have won the Olympic quota place in the men's category. Ravi Dahiya (57 kg), Bajrang Punia (65 kg), Deepak Punia (86 kg) are the other three wrestlers to have won tickets to Tokyo Olympics from the 2019 Olympic qualification cycle.On Friday, three Indian women will compete with an eye on the Olympic quota.
--IANS nns/qma