World Wrestling Championships: Sushil Kumar loses opening round bout
Veteran wrestler Sushil Kumar lost in the opening round of the ongoing World Wrestling Championships on Friday. The Indian double Olympic medallist lost his opening round bout to Azerbaijan's Khadzhimurad Gadzhiyev in Nursultan, Kazakhstan. He lost his bout 9-11 in the 74 kg category. Besides Sushil, three other Indian wrestlers lost their respective matches as well. Here are the details.
Sushil's hopes to earn an Olympic quota and enter the bronze medal match ended on a sour note. This was also after Gadhziyev lost in the quarter-finals later to Jordan Burroughs, ending Sushil's hopes. Sushil started in a positive fashion to take a crucial 9-4 lead but lost seven points in a row to lose the qualification bout. His opponent was too strong.
Meanwhile, Parveen Rana lost to Ukraine's Liubomyr Sagaliuk 8-0 in the 92 kg bout. This was after he had earlier beaten Changjae Sue 12-1 by technical superiority. Reigning Commonwealth Games champion Sumit Malik lost 0-2 to two-time European Championships medallist Daniel Ligeti of Hungary. Also, Karan lost 0-7 to Ikhtiyor Navruzov of Uzbekistan in his first-round qualification in the 70 kg category.
Earlier, Bajrang Punia and Ravi Kumar Dahiya on Thursday reached the bronze medal bouts in their respective categories. They had earned Olympic quotas for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. However, the two wrestlers lost in the semi-finals. Bajrang lost to Daulet Niyazbekov of Kazakhstan 9-9 on criteria. Meanwhile, Ravi lost against Zaur Uguev 4-6. Besides the two, Pooja Dhanda lost her bronze medal match.
Bajrang and Dahiya will face Tulga Tumur Ochir and Reza Ahmadali respectively in their bronze medal bouts on Friday evening. One will hope to see both these wrestlers win their respective medals and bring some smile to the Indian camp.
