Wrestling: Deepak Punia enters semi-final

Deepak Punia, the reigning Commonwealth Games 2022 champion, secured a commanding victory of 7-3 against Japanese wrestler Shota Shirai in the men's 86kg quarter-final bout at the Asian Games 2023. This marks Shirai's second appearance at the Asian Games. Punia, who previously competed in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, is now set to battle for a spot in the gold medal match later today.

In the preceding rounds at Hangzhou, Punia dominated the competition, defeating Indonesia's Randa Riandesta with a score of 11-0 and narrowly triumphing over Bahrain's Magomed Magomed R Sharipov with a score of 3-2 in the pre-quarterfinals and qualification rounds, respectively.