Wrestling World Championships | Sumit Malik in with Bronze medal chance; Sonba Tanaji waits for repechage rounds

Sumit Malik is close to winning a World Championship bronze medal as he waits for the result of repechage bout between Amarveer Dhesi of Canada and Nicholas Edward Gwiazdowski of USA. Malik will play the winner of the match for the bronze. Whereas Sonba Tanaji Gogane lost his quarterfinal bout reigning European champion Rashidov Gadzhimurad 0-10.

Earlier in the championship, Malik was looking good after beating Japan's Taiki Yamamoto 4-1 in the pre-quarter-finals and Inkar Yermukambet of Kazakhstan 6-1 in the quarterfinals. Before he lost his semifinal in a one-sided match against Zhewei Ding of China 0-5. Sumit Malik had a favourable draw coming into the tournament and he did not let the chance go begging as he reached the semifinals even though he lost the match to a much superior opponent.

Sonba Tanaji Gogane had a tough opponent in Rashidov who also happens to be a two time European Champion. Though attacking at the start Gogane had to slow down as his aggression was not yielding any points. As the game progressed the Russian upped the ante and bagged four points to take the lead through a takedown. Rashidov further strengthened his lead by two points when he got hold of Gogane’s legs. Four more points were added to Rashidov’s kitty as he lifted his opponent and put him on the mat. Thus Rashidov destroyed his opponent with still under a minute to go in the match.

Earlier Gogane won against Andrei Bekrenu 4-3 and Lowe Bingham (10-0) in the qualification rounds. He still has a chance to win the bronze as he has repechage round encounter against Tuvshintulga Tumenbileg from Mongolia.

In the 74 kg category Jitender lost  3-6 to Slovakia's Akhsarbek Gulaev in the pre-quarterfinals even as Pawan Kumar was routed 0-6 by Ukraine's Mraz Dzhafarian in 86 kg category.