On a disappointing day overall, the Indian wrestlers failed to make it to the medal rounds on day one of the UWW World Championships on Saturday. While Abhimanyu, the U-23 World Championship bronze medalist, managed to reach the quarters, but he lost his bout to Zain Rutherford of the USA.
Ranked 26th in the world, Abhimanyu started well by beating the world no.7 Ukranian Ihor Nykyforuk 19-9 by fall. Then in the next round, he got the better of Moldova’s Nicolai Grahmez 13-2, to enter the quarters. But eventually, Abhimanyu lost out to world no. 2 Rutherford 2-9. Despite the loss, all is not over for the Indian youngster who could have a medal shot through a repechage.
That will only happen if Zain manages to reach the final in his category. Meanwhile, the UWW World Championships is an important competition for the Indian wrestlers, as this will serve as the qualifying tournament for Paris 2024. On the other hand, Akash Dahiya (61kg) exited the competition in pre-quarters. He defeated his Moldovan opponent Leomid Colesnic 10-5 but lost his pre-quarterfinal contest to Uzbekistan’s world No.6 Jahongirmirza Turobov.
The world no. 21 Akash Dahiya los 4-7. In the 86kg freestyle category, grappler Sandeep Mann got the better of Dejan Mitrov of North Macedonia 10-0 in the first round. In the second, he lost to China’s Lin Zushen in 0-11.
India’s 125kg grappler Sumit, after an easy first-round qualification outing against Japanese Taiki Yamamoto, whom he beat 3-1, lost his pre-quarterfinal contest to a far superior opponent in Poland’s Robert Baran. The seventh-seeded Polish wrestler secured a ‘win by decision’ VPO 3-0.
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