World Wrestling Championship | Bajrang Punia loses, India end campaign without a medal

08/27/2017

India ended their campaign at the World Wrestling Championship without a single medal added to its tally after Bajrang Punia bowed out in his repechage bout on Saturday. The other Indian wrestlers in Praveen Rana and Satyawart Kadian lost their round of 16 contests to crash out of the tournament.

India's dismal run at the World Wrestling Championship continued on the final day as well with Bajrang Punia, who had recently been crowned at the Asian Championships, blew away the Indian fan's hopes not once but twice.

Punia started his campaign on a high winning his opening match in the men's 65kg freestyle category and advancing to the round of 16 in the competition. However, the 23-year old faltered in the pre-quarters and lost narrowly to Zurabi Iakobishvili of Georgia 5-6. The pre-quarter bout was not the end of his campaign as Punia was handed a golden opportunity via the repechage rule.

Punia, however, failed to capitalise on the opportunity at hand and was beaten 3-8 by Mustafa Kaya from Turkey ending India's hopes of a medal at the competition. Earlier in the day, Praveen Rana (74kg) and Satyawart Kadian (97kg), like the rest of the Indian contingent, failed to get past the round of 16 stages and were not pulled back by repechage either, ending their campaign in the tournament.

Rana was blanked 0-5 by Jabrayil Hasanov of Azerbaijan while Kadian suffered a similar scoreline defeat at the hands of Armenia's Georgii Ketoyev. The only Indian grappler to bow out in the qualification round was Amith Dhankar (70kg) who was handed a 2-9 defeat by Kazakhstan's Akzhurek Tanatarov.

India had sent a 24-wrestler contingent to the World Competition but none of the grapplers made it past the pre-quarterfinals stages and India ended its campaign medal-less.

World Wrestling Championship | Bajrang Punia loses, India end campaign without a medal

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