NUR-SULTAN: The 19-year-old, who became the youngest Indian ever to make it to the final of the World Championships, also bagged a Tokyo 2020 Olympic quota in the process.
Deepak, who also won the World Cadet title in 2016, is thus the fourth Indian grappler to book a Tokyo ticket this week, following Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia and Ravi Kumar Dahiya. While each of them pocketed a bronze medal, Deepak will be the only Indian to return home with at least a silver.
While Deepak was easily the star of the show on the penultimate day of the championships, Rahul Aware (61kg) also remains in contention for a bronze in the non-Olympic category.
Deepak made a slow and nervous start to his maiden campaign at the Worlds, but showed terrific maturity and presence of mind to turn the tables. Trailing 0-5 against the home favourite Adilet Davlumbayev, Punia stormed back to complete an 8-6 comeback win.
Against Tajikistan's Bakhodur Kodirov, Punia never relinquished his control to secure a commanding 6-0 win and then followed it up with a gritty and hard-fought 7-6 victory over Carlos Arturo Izquierdo Mendez of Colombia that gave him the prized Olympic berth.
In the semi-finals, Deepak beat Switzerland's Stefan Reichmuth 8-2 to set up a final showdown with Olympic and world champion Hassan Aliazam Yazdani Charati of Iran.
Commonwealth Games gold medallist Rahul Aware made a thunderous start to his challenge with an emphatic 13-2 victory over Turkmenistan's Kerim Hojakov. Against Kazakhstan's Rassul Kaliyev in the last-eight round, the Indian had to dig deep and relied on his finesse to secure a 10-7 victory.
Aware then came up short against the European Championship silver medallist Beka Lomtadze of Georgia, 6-10 in a very fast semi-final match.
Meanwhile, Jitender (79kg) lost in the quarter-finals to Slovakia's Taimuraz Salkazanov 0-4. In 97kg, Mausam Khatri was completely outplayed by the reigning Olympic champion Kyle Frederick Snyder of USA in 0-10 verdict.
With both their opponents failing to reach the finals, Jitender and Khatri bowed out of the championships.