Belgrade [Serbia], September 17 : Three Indian grapplers bowed out of the competition in round two while Abhimanyu earned a quarterfinal finish in the 70 kg men's freestyle category at the ongoing World Wrestling Championships being held at Belgrade on Saturday.
Abhimanyu, a U23 World Championships bronze medalist from June had beaten Ukraine's world number seven Ihor Nykyforuk 19-9 with a victory by fall (VFA) and Moldova's Nicolai Grahmez 13-2 (technical superiority) to make it to the quarterfinals.
In the QFs, he lost to US's Zain Allen Retherford by 2-9 via Victory by Points with Technical Points (VPO1).
He made it to the repechage round though, where he will face Mustafo Akhmedov. The wrestler he lost to in the QFs made it to the final, causing Abhimanyu to reach the repechage and is just two bouts away from the bronze.
Akash Dahiya, in the men's 61 kg freestyle category, first beat Leomid Colesnic of Moldova by 10-5 via Victory by Points with Technical Points (VPO1) but he lost to Uzbekistan's Jahongirmirza Turobov in the round of 16 by 4-7 via Victory by Fall (VFA).
Sandeep Mann also started his 86 kg freestyle campaign with a victory over Dejan Mitrov of North Macedonia by 10-0 via technical superiority. But he lost to China's Lin Zushen in the second round by 0-11 via technical superiority.
Sumit, India's 125 kg freestyle wrestler won his first-round match to Japanese Taiki Yamamoto by 3-1 via Victory by Points with Technical Points (VPO1) but lost his pre-quarters bout to Poland's Robert Baran, the seventh seed by 3-0 via 'win by decision' VPO.
The World Wrestling Championships 2023, the first qualifying event for next year's Olympics in Paris, began on Friday in Belgrade, Serbia. It will end on September 24.
The World Wrestling Championships 2023 will include one Indian wrestler in each of the 30 medal events - ten in Greco-Roman and ten each in men's and women's freestyle.
The World Wrestling Championships will have 90 quotas, five for each of the 18 Olympic weight divisions. The four medalists (gold, silver, and two bronze) in each of these categories will each receive one quota position for their respective NOCs. The winner of the contest between the two bronze medal match losers will receive the fifth quota.
Wrestlers from India will fight under the United World Wrestling (UWW) flag, after the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) was temporarily suspended for failing to hold elections on time.
Indian wrestlers at World Wrestling Championships 2023 - full list
-Men’s Greco-Roman: Ajay (55kg), Manish (60kg), Vikram (63kg), Vinayak (67kg), Ankit Gulia (72kg), Gurpreet Singh (77kg), Sajan (82kg), Manoj Kumar (87kg), Shailesh (97kg), Mehar Singh (130kg)
-Women’s freestyle: Neelam Sirohi (50kg), Antim Panghal (53kg), Neha (55kg), Sarita Mor (57kg), Anjali (59kg), Manisha Bhanwala (62kg), Antim Kundu (65kg), Priyanka (68kg), Jyoti Berwal (72kg), Divya Kakran (76kg)
-Men’s freestyle: Aman Sherawat (57kg), Akash Dahiya (61kg), Anuj Kumar (65kg), Abhimanyu (70kg), Naveen Malik (74kg), Sachin More (79kg), Sandeep Mann (86kg), Pruthviraj Patil (92kg), Sahil (97kg), Sumit Malik (125kg).
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