CHENNAI: Men freestyle wrestlers from the country continued to struggle at the U20 World Championships in Bratislava, Slovakia on Saturday as only one out of four in action could manage to make it to the repechage round. The story was almost the same on Friday as all the four wrestlers — Rupesh (57kg), Rohit Kumar (65kg), Saurabh Yadav (79kg) and Nikhil (92kg) — bowed out of the competition.
Sumit Kumar, who competes in the 74kg weight category, was the saving grace in an otherwise disappointing day for the Indian wrestlers. He lost his qualification bout 1-5 against Haji Karimov of Azerbaijan but his rival made it to the final giving the Indian a shot at the bronze medal. Sumit will be up against Muhamed Veseli of North Macedonia in the repechage round on Sunday.
Adarsh Patil won two bouts in the 74kg weight category before losing the quarterfinal. He first defeated Koba Goguadze of Georgia 10-7 and then beat Kyrgyzstan wrestler Baiyt Abdysamatov by the same scoreline. Ukraine's Ivan Zalisko, however, proved to be a difficult opponent as he defeated the Indian by technical superiority (11-1). Adarsh's hope of making it to the repechage round ended as Zalisko lost his semifinal.
Like Adarsh, India's Ronak Dahiya also made a good start winning his qualification bout in the 125kg weight category by technical superiority (10-0) against Yaraslau Kokhan of Belarus. Ronak, who also competes in the Greco-Roman style, then repeated the show against Narantulga Darmaabazar of Mongolia. The quarterfinal bout against Yusif Dusunov of Azerbaijan turned out to be a close affair and Ronak lost it 2-3. Dusunov then got beaten in the semifinal ending the India wrestler's campaign.
Lacky was another Indian wrestler in action on Saturday. He lost the qualification bout in the 97kg to Yuanchong Yang of China. Yang too lost his next bout bringing curtains down on Lacky's campaign in the tournament.
Earlier, India women finished second behind Japan in the team rankings after winning a gold, three silver and two bronze medals. The Greco-Roman wrestlers started India's campaign in the tournament but none of them could finish on the podium.