U-23 wrestling: After Sajan Bhanwala, Vikas & Nitesh shine in India’s best show in Greco-Roman; silver for Ankush

Pontevedra (Spain), Oct 20

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Ankush settled for the silver medal in the women’s 50kg category, while Vikas and Nitesh won bronze medals to give India its best-ever finish in the Greco-Roman event at the U-23 World Championship here.

Ankush had a Herculean task at hand as she went up against Japan’s Yui Susaki, who is the reigning Olympics and senior world champion, in the title clash. Ankush proved no match for Susaki as the Japanese pinned the Indian in less than two minutes today. Susaki created history as she became the first person to win wrestling’s ‘Grand Slam’. Along with the Olympics title, she has won gold in the U-17, U-20, U-23 and senior categories of the World Championship.

On Wednesday night, Vikas and Nitesh carried forward the momentum after Sajan Bhanwala had broken the barrier with the country’s first-ever Greco-Roman medal in the championship. Bhanwala had claimed a bronze medal in the 77kg category.

In the bronze medal playoffs, Vikas blanked Japan’s Daigo Kobayashi 6-0 in the 72kg category, while Nitesh beat Brazil’s Igor Fernando Alves de Queiroz by techincal superiority in the 97kg section.

Interestingly, only six of India’s 10 Greco-Roman wrestlers travelled to Spain for the championship. The other four were denied visa.

Vikas went ahead after scoring a point on his rival’s passivity. In the fast-paced second period, Vikas pushed his opponent out of the mat for one more point. He made it 4-0 with a takedown on a counter-attack and followed that up with a gut wrench to make it 6-0.

Vikas stayed strong in his defence too and maintained his lead in the remaining 100 seconds of the bout to ensure a special medal.