Wrestler Ravinder opened India’s medal account at the Under-23 Senior World Championships as he clinched the silver medal in the men’s freestyle 61kg category in Budapest, Hungary on Wednesday.
Ravinder went down 3-5 in a closely contested bout against Kyrgyzstan’s Ulukbek Zholdoshbekov. The Indian grappler had a 1-0 lead going into the second period of the bout after a cagey first three minutes. The second period saw his opponent receive medical attention halfway through but the Kyrgyzstan wrestler bounced back after that to bag two two-pointers with less than a minute to go.
Ravinder closed the gap down to 3-4 with seconds left on the clock but a desperate challenge from the Indian camp was unsuccessful, resulting in an additional point for the eventual champion.
The 22-year-old had pinned senior European champion Arsen Harutyunan of Armenia to storm into the final on Tuesday night. He had notched up a 12-1 win over Hungary’s Marcell Budai Kovacs in his opening bout and then followed it up with an 11-0 demolition of Russia’s Dinislam Takhtarov in the quarter-finals.
The Sonipat grappler, who won gold at the South Asian Games in 2016 and also a bronze at the Cadet Asian Championships in 2014, could have been the first Indian to win the gold medal at this newly formed event. The first edition of the tournament was played in 2017 in Poland where Bajrang Punia, to three silver medals.
In the second edition, Ravi Dahiya was the long medallist before he proving his mettle at the 2019 senior World Championships by claiming the bronze and confirming the 57 kg freestyle category berth at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Earlier on Wednesday, India’s Jyoti fell short of reaching the final after a dominant quarter-final win. She entered the last four with a 12-1 win over Moldova’s Maria Leorda in the women’s 50kg category but was bested 15-4 by Japan’s Kika Kagata. The Indian had raced to a 4-0 lead but the Japanese grappler stormed back with 15 unanswered points to win the bout by technical superiority.
While Jyoti dazzled on the mat for the most part on day three, the rest of the women failed to emulate her. In 55kg, Rani Rana was blanked 0-6 by USA’s Dominique Olivia Parrish in the qualifiers while Suman put up better efforts in her qualifying bout against China’s Yingying Wang, only to go down 4-6. In 59kg, Pooja Yadav’s campaign was cut short by top seed Tiana Grace Kennett, who dealt her a 6-2 blow.
Jyoti will now look clinch a bronze medal on Thursday.
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