U-23 Wrestling World Championships | Sajan Bhanwal loses in semi-finals; will contest for bronze

In a difficult semi-final bout of the championships, the 20-year-old Indian was up against Cataraga from Moldova in Bucharest of Romania. The Indian was on the back-foot from the very first period itself with a scoreline of 6-3 before the match was ended by virtue of fall. Sajan got the better of Iran’s Seyed Mohammad Seyedali Choobchian Langeroudi by 14-6 points while in the quarter-final bout, he thrashed Riccardo Vito Abbresica from Italy by 10-4 points.

Prior to this tournament, Sajan had clinched his first international gold in Junior Asian Championship earlier this year and is also the only Indian to bag consecutive medals at the Junior World Championships where he won a bronze in 2017 and silver in Slovakia in 2018.

Meanwhile, another Indian wrestler Ravin was knocked out after going down to Kazakhstan’s Amangali Bekbolatov by technical superiority in the quarter-final round of the 55kg category.

India had won three silver medals in the inaugural edition of the under 23 world event which was held last year in Bydgoszcz, Poland. In men’s freestyle Bajrang Punia and Vinod Omprakash finished second while Ritu Phogat lost the final of the women’s event.