BELGRADE: India's Olympic silver medallist Ravi Dahiya was out of medal contention in the Wrestling World Championships after losing to Uzbekistan's Gulomjon Abdullaev in the 57kg qualification round here on Friday.
While Dahiya made an early exit, Naveen entered the bronze medal match after beating World No.4 Syrbaz Talgat of Uzbekistan in 70kg opening round of repechage 11-3.
World No.2 Dahiya lost by technical superiority (10-0) to the Uzbek in a rather one-sided bout.
Dahiya, who won the silver at the Tokyo Olympics last year, will not be contesting in repechage for bronze as Abdullaev lost to Albanian wrestler Zelimkhan Abakarov.
On the other hand, Naveen's win took him directly to the bronze medal match as his next-round opponent Ilyas Bekbulatov (Uzbekistan) couldn't compete due to an injury.
Dahiya had defeated Razvan Marian Kovacs of Romania by technical superiority (10-0) in the first round 10-0. It was never going to be an easy outing for Dahiya as he has lost to World No.30 Abdullaev multiple times in the past.
Even though Abdullaev exacted revenge over Dahiya after his loss in the UWW Ranking Series event (Yasar Dogu 2022) in Istanbul in February, the Uzbek could not go past Abakarov, who won by technical superiority (13-2) to book his semifinal spot.
Commonwealth Games champion Naveen will face Ernazar Akmatalieve of Kyrgyzstan in his bronze medal match later on Friday evening.