World Wrestling Championship | India’s poor run continues as Greco-Roman grapplers fail

Gyander Dahiya was the biggest hope for India as he had advanced to the second round through repechage. The 59-kg category grappler had earlier defeated China’s Libin Ding 4-1 to progress into the round of 16.

It was followed by a defeat to Kazakhstan’s Mirambek Ainagulov, but the 23-year-old got yet another chance via repechage against Egypt’s Mostafa Mohamed as Ainagulov reached the final. Dahiya defeated the Egyptian 3-1 but his campaign soon came to a halt as he was ousted by Ukraine’s Tsymbaliuk D in a closely fought contest that ended in 2-2.  

The first wrestler to take the mat in the 66-kg category was Ravinder. He wasn’t very fortunate though as he lost to Sweden’s Hussam Omar 1-2 in the qualification round. The Swede couldn’t go past the round of 32 leaving the Indian no chance through repechage.

Naveen Sevlia and Harpreet Singh were competing from the 130-kg and the 80-kg category respectively, and both lost in the qualification round. While Harpreet lost to Kazakhstan’s Askhat Dilmukhamedov 1-3, Naveen was seen off by Germany’s Eduard Popp 1-2. Though Dilmukhamedov did qualify for the quarters, it wasn’t enough for Harpreet to make it to the repechage round. Popp was soon eliminated in the quarter finals.

India had seen Yogesh, Gurpreet Singh, Ravindar Khatri, and Hardeep Singh - all getting eliminated previously as none could win the qualifying round.