Wrestling worlds: Abhimanyu to fight for bronze

Belgrade, September 17

Abhimanyu entered the bronze medal playoff but India’s other freestyle wrestlers had a disappointing day at the World Championships here today.

Abhimanyu entered the medal round in the non-Olympics 70kg weight class through the repechage route. Abhimanyu had lost in the quarterfinals yesterday to USA’s Zain Allen Retherford, who made it to the final. In the repechage round, Abhimanyu defeated Tajikistan’s Mustafo Akhmedov 3-1.

Pruthviraj Patil (92kg) lost 0-3 to Georgia’s Miriani Maisuradze in the quarterfinals in the non-Olympics category. Pruthviraj had defeated Moldova’s Ion Demian 6-4 before easing past eighth-seeded Ermak Kardanov of Slovakia 6-1 in the pre-quarterfinals. Maisuradze later lost 1-8 to Kazakhstan’s Rizabek Aitmukhan in the semifinals.

In the 79kg non-Olympics category, Sachin Mor beat Mexico’s Raul Israel Dominguez 8-3 before going down to lower-ranked Akhmed Usmanov, who won by technical superiority.

In the 57kg class, Aman Sehrawat earned an 11-0 victory against Moldova’s Igor Chichioi before losing 0-11 to world No. 22 Zelimkhan Abakarov of Albania.

In 74kg, Naveen got the better of Tobias Portmann of Switzerland 12-6 but lost the next match to the lower-ranked Arsalan Budazhapov of Kyrgyzstan 4-6.