ravi-dahiya-sportstiger

Picture Credit: Twitter

A day after Vinesh Phogat clinched bronze medal at World Wrestling Championships 2022, medal-prospect Ravi Dahiya bowed out of the elite competition after suffering a shocking defeat against Uzbekistan's Gulomjon Abdullev 10-0 via technical superiority in the 57kg category quarterfinals in Belgrade, Serbia on Friday.

Notably, Dahiya will not be competing in repechage for bronze medal match after Abdullaev lost to Albanian wrestler Zelimkhan Abakarov. He had defeated Razvan Marian Kovacs of Romania in the first round 10-0 himself. World number 2 Ravi Dahiya had arguably the best chance to win a gold medal as the reigning Olympic champion Zaur Uguev of Russia withdrew from the tournament. 

While Ravi crashed out of the quarter-finals stage, the prolific wrestler enjoyed great time in previous tournaments. The 24-year-old clinched gold, both at the Asian Championships in April and CWG 2022 in August. 

Indians at the World Wrestling Championships

Naveen Malik defeated Syrbaz Talgat in the 70kg repechage to keep his medal hopes alive at the World Wrestling Championship 2022.  In the 74kg category, Sagar Jaglan won on technical superiority against Israel's Mitchell Louis Finesilver 15-4. Jaglan was initially trailing 1-4 but turned the game around by grabbing the legs of his opponent and rolling him over multiple times to clinch the victory. 

Nisha Dahiya was another prominent Indian wrestler whose campaign ended in a heartbreak after she lost to Canada's Linda Morais in the women's 68kg bronze medal bout. She took the lead with a four-point takedown, but the 2022 CWG silver medallist claimed victory via fall by pinning Nisha to the ground. Earlier on Wednesday, Vinesh Phogat became the first Indian woman wrestler to win two medals at the World Championships as she won the bronze medal in the 53kg category by defeating Sweden's Emma Jonna Malmgren.

The 28-year-old had also won a bronze in the 2019 edition in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. It was a remarkable comeback for Vinesh after her opening round defeat as she beat Malmgren 8-0 in the bronze medal round. She had made it to the bronze play-off via the repechage round.