Ravinder loses World Wrestling Championships bronze medal bout

Gourav Baliyan was knocked out in the qualification round.

Indian wrestlers once again had a disappointing day at the World Wrestling Championships. This was the second day of the 17th edition of the prestigious competition in Oslo, Norway. As many as five Indian wrestlers were in action on Sunday.

The promising Ravinder had knocked out defending world champion Beka Lomtadze of Georgia in the 61kg division pre-quarters. However, he then lost heavily to Daton Duain Fix in the quarterfinal. But, the American reaching the final provided him with an opportunity to clinch the bronze medal on Sunday.

Ravinder showed maturity beyond his age to oust Bulgarian Georgi Valentin Vangelov in the repechage round. He was trailing 0-8 at one point, but then pulled off a sensational come-from-behind victory by fall. The Indian grappler was then face-to-face with 2019 European champion Arsen Harutyunyan of Armenia for a chance to finish on the podium. Ravinder was completely outplayed as he lost the bout by technical superiority, falling just short of clinching a bronze medal at the World Wrestling Championships.

Gourav Baliyan suffers shock exit

The biggest disappointment of the day at the Wrestling World Championships was Gourav Baliyan. Much was expected from the 2019 national champion. However, he suffered a shock defeat in his opening bout of the 79kg qualification round itself. Baliyan bowed out after a technical superiority 10-0 humbling at the hands of Bat Erdene Byambasuren of Mongolia.

On the other hand, the Indian representative in the 57kg category was Pankaj. He started on a positive note, beating Spaniard Levan Metreveli Vartanov in the qualification round by a scoreline of 4-3. It was a close encounter, but that wasn't the case in Pankaj's next match in the pre-quarterfinals. Up against Suleyman Atli of Turkey, Pankaj went on to lose 10-0 by technical superiority.

In the absence of Bajrang Punia, the highly-competitive 65kg weight category slot went to Rohit. He began well to win his qualification round 11-0 by technical superiority. Charles Fernando Divoshan of Sri Lanka was on the receiving end of it. The pre-quarterfinals was a very difficult test against Zagir Shakhiev of the Russian Wrestling Federation (RWF). Despite a valiant effort, Rohit went down 4-5 in the bout. However, Shakhiev later went on to reach the gold medal match. This means the Indian will get a lifeline via the repechage rounds. He will first have to overcome Selahattin Kilicsallayan of Turkey at the World Wrestling Championships.

Elsewhere, in the heavyweight 92kg weight category, Pruthviraj Babasaheb Patil directly entered the pre-quarters. Patil suffered a heavy 10-0 technical superiority loss at the hands of 2021 European Championships bronze medalist Osman Nurmagomedov of Azerbaijan.

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