World Wrestling Championships | Greco-Roman wrestlers continue to struggle

09/15/2019

Olympic qualification was at stake in three categories but all three Indians, Manish (67kg), Sunil Kumar (87kg) and Ravi (97kg) exited without putting up a strong competition. Ravi won India's first bout at the World Championships before suffering a defeat and going down in the next round.

After four Indian wrestlers lost their first bouts at the World Championships, India finally got a win in the Greco-Roman section on Sunday as Ravi opened his account with an opening win in the 97kg category. However, he went down in the next round to Artur Omarov of the Czech Republic.

In the first round, Ravi beat Chinese Taipei’s Cheng Hao Chen 5-0 in a solid performance, with 2 quick points at the start. He then pressed home the advantage by scoring three more points in the second round.

Ravi went down to Artur Omarov of Czech Republic 5-0 (7-0) by VFA in the 1/8 round. Ravi lost two points for fleeing the mat and then conceded a passivity point. Omarov finished the bout in a jiffy as he made the score 7-0 with two gut wrench moves and then pinned his opponent.

Earlier, in the 67kg category, Manish lost to Bulgaria’s Deyvid Dimitrov 1-10 in the round 1/16 while in the 87kg category, Sunil Kumar has lost to the USA’s Josef Patrick Rau 0-6.

Manish started his bout strong opening up an early 1-0 lead and taking the lead into the next round. But the Bulgarian was too strong after the break finishing the bout with two takedowns (worth 5 points each) earning 10 points in a row to win by Technical Superiority

If a wrestler can lift an opponent high off the mat in an effective way that sends legs directly above the head, he can score five points which is what happened in the bout.

In India’s second clash of the day, Sunil was unable to score a point in the 87kg bout. The American dominated both rounds to win the bout 6-0 and advance.

Ravi, Manish, and Sunil are all out of the repechage round as well as Omarov, Dimitrov, and Rau could not reach the final.