All 4 Indian free-style grapplers competing on the opening day of the UWW World Championships misplaced their respective bouts on Saturday, in a disappointing begin to the nation’s marketing campaign on the international occasion, which can also be a 2024 Paris Olympic qualification match. Solely Abhimanyu, in 70kg, confirmed the dedication to slug it out by reaching the quarterfinal earlier than his run was ended by Zain Allen Retherford of the USA. The American, ranked No.2 on this planet, secured a 9-2 ‘win by determination’ to advance to the semifinals. Abhimanyu, the bronze-medal winner on the U23 World Championships in June and ranked twenty sixth on this planet, had earlier upset Ukrainian world No.7 Ihor Nykyforuk 19-9 by effecting a victory by fall (VFA) earlier than defeating Moldova’s Nicolai Grahmez 13-2 (technical superiority) to safe a spot within the quarters.
He, nonetheless, bumped into Allen Retherford, runner-up on the 2022 World Championships in Belgrade final 12 months, and the Indian was no match for the 28-year-old American.
Abhimanyu was in nice kind within the first spherical in opposition to the higher-ranked Nykyforuk, ending the competition in 5 minutes, 41 seconds. The referee stopped the competition 2.41 minutes into the second three-minute session, after Abhimanyu had additionally dominated the primary three-minute session, to take a 5-0 lead.
The opposite three Indians — Akash Dahiya (61kg), Sandeep Mann (86kg) and Sumit (125kg) — could not progress past the pre-quarterfinal stage, with Mann falling within the second spherical of qualification.
Abhimanyu, Akash and Sumit can nonetheless hope to win a bronze medal by means of the repechage route. The repechage comes into impact for wrestlers who lose within the pre-quarterfinals or later. It permits the wrestlers an opportunity to revive themselves within the competitors if the opponent they misplaced to reaches the ultimate.
Akash (61kg), regardless of starting on a successful word and defeating his Moldovan opponent Leomid Colesnic 10-5, misplaced his pre-quarterfinal contest to Uzbekistan’s world No.6 Jahongirmirza Turobov.
Akash, ranked twenty first right here, was no match for Turobov, the gold medallist on the 2021 Asian Championships, with the Ukrainian incomes a victory by fall (7-4).
Within the 86kg free-style class, Mann obtained the higher of Dejan Mitrov of North Macedonia with a win by technical superiority (10-0), however was no match for Lin Zushen within the second spherical of qualification shedding 0-11, with the referee declaring the Chinese language winner on technical superiority with practically 45 seconds nonetheless remaining within the contest.
India’s 125kg grappler Sumit, after a straightforward first-round qualification contest in opposition to Japanese Taiki Yamamoto, whom he beat 3-1, misplaced his pre-quarterfinal contest to a far superior opponent in Poland’s Robert Baran.
The seventh-seeded Polish wrestler, silver medallist on the European Championships and quarterfinalist on the 2016 Rio Olympic Video games, was simply too good for the Indian, securing a ‘win by determination’ VPO 3-0.
The finals within the 4 weight classes will likely be held on Sunday.
India is competing within the Worlds beneath the United World Wrestling (UWW) flag after the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) was suspended for failing to carry elections within the time frame given by the world physique.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
Matters talked about on this article