Belgrade: On the opening day of the UWW World Championships, three Indian free-style wrestlers were eliminated after losing their second-round matches, and only the 70 kg wrestler Abhimanyu advanced to Saturday's quarterfinals.
Abhimanyu, who took home the bronze medal at the U23 World Championships in June and is currently ranked 26th in the world, first upset Ukrainian world No. 7 Ihor Nykyforuk 19-9 by achieving a victory by fall (VFA), and then defeated Moldova's Nicolai Grahmez 13-2 (technical superiority) to advance to the quarterfinals, PTI reported.
He will, however, run into world No.2 from the United States, 28-year-old Zain Allen Retherford, runner-up at the 2022 World Championships in Belgrade last year.
The World Championships here is a 2024 Paris Olympic qualification tournament.
India is competing in the global event under the United World Wrestling (UWW) flag after the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) was suspended for failing to hold elections in the time frame given by the world body.
Abhimanyu was in great form in the first round against the higher-ranked Nykyforuk, finishing the contest in 5 minutes, 41 seconds.
The referee stopped the contest 2.41 minutes into the second three-minute session after Abhimanyu had also dominated the first three-minute session, taking a 5-0 lead.
Akash Dahiya (61kg) despite beginning on a winning note, defeating his Moldovan opponent Leomid Colesnic, with the referees giving an overwhelming 10-5 verdict in the Indian’s favour, lost his pre-quarterfinal contest to Uzbekistan’s world No.6 Jahongirmirza Turobov.
Dahiya, ranked 21st here, was no match for Turobov, gold medallist at the 2021 Asian Championships, with the Ukrainian earning a victory by fall (7-4).
In the 86kg free-style category, grappler Sandeep Mann got the better of Dejan Mitrov of North Macedonia with a win by technical superiority (10-0), but was no match for Lin Zushen in the second round of qualification losing 0-11 with the referee declaring the Chinese winner on technical superiority with nearly 45 seconds remaining in the contest.
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 seeded seventh Polish wrestler is a silver medallist at the European Championships besides being a quarterfinalist at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, was just too good for the Indian, securing a ‘win by decision’ VPO 3-0.