World Championships: Ravi Dahiya loses to Gulomjon Abdullaev, medal out of reach

Belgrade, September 16

India’s Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Ravi Dahiya was out of medal contention in the Wrestling World Championships after losing to Uzbekistan’s Gulomjon Abdullaev in the 57kg category qualification round here today.

While Dahiya made an early exit, Naveen entered the bronze medal match after beating world No. 4 Syrbaz Talgat of Uzbekistan 11-3 in the opening round of repechage in the 70kg category.

World No. 2 Dahiya lost by technical superiority (10-0) to the Uzbek in a one-sided bout.

Dahiya will not be contesting in repechage for bronze as Abdullaev lost to Albanian wrestler Zelimkhan Abakarov.

On the other hand, Naveen’s win took him directly to the bronze medal match as his next opponent Ilyas Bekbulatov couldn’t compete due to an injury.

Dahiya had defeated Razvan Marian Kovacs of Romania by technical superiority (10-0) in the first round.

In the men’s 74kg category quarterfinals bout, Sagar Jaglan lost to three-time world champion winner Kyle Dake of the USA. Vicky lost his first-round bout to Poland’s Radoslaw Marcinkiewicz 4-3. World under-20 bronze medallist Jaglan got the better of Israel’s Mitchell Finesilver 15-4 and Mexico’s Diego Zarco 13-2 before being beaten by Olympics bronze medallist Dake in the quarterfinals. Jaglan stayed in the fray for a bronze medal.