Wrestling worlds: First day, flop show as grapplers fail to make it count

Belgrade, September 16

All four Indian freestyle grapplers competing on the opening day of the World Championships were ousted today in a disappointing start to the country’s campaign.

Only Abhimanyu showed the determination to slug it out by reaching the quarterfinals before his run was ended by Zain Allen Retherford of the United States in the 70kg category. The world No. 2 American secured a 9-2 to advance to the semifinals.

Abhimanyu, who won bronze at the U-23 World Championships in June and is ranked 26th in the world, first upset Ukrainian world No. 7 Ihor Nykyforuk 19-9 in a victory by fall (VFA) before defeating Moldova’s Nicolai Grahmez 13-2 (technical superiority) to secure a place in the quarters.

The Worlds is a 2024 Paris Olympics qualification tournament.

Akash Dahiya (61kg) also began on a winning note, defeating Moldovan Leonid Colesnic 10-5, but lost his pre-quarterfinals contest to Uzbekistan’s world No. 6 Jahongirmirza Turobov.

Dahiya was no match for Turobov, a gold medallist at the 2021 Asian Championships, as the Uzbek earned a victory by fall (7-4).

In the 86kg category, Sandeep Mann got the better of Dejan Mitrov of North Macedonia with a win by technical superiority (10-0) but lost 0-11 to Lin Zushen in the second round of the qualification.

In the 125kg category, Sumit scored a 3-1 first-round win over Japanese Taiki Yamamoto but lost his last-16 bout to Poland’s Robert Baran.

Abhimanyu, Akash and Sumit can still hope to win a bronze medal through the repechage route. The repechage comes into effect for the wrestlers who lose in the pre-quarterfinals or later.