U-23 World Wrestling Championships | Vikas and Nitesh increase India's Greco-Roman medal count

U-23 World Wrestling Championships | Vikas and Nitesh increase India's Greco-Roman medal count

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The Greco-Roman 72kg and 97kg divisions at the U-23 World Wrestling Championships 2022 in Spain saw Indian wrestlers Vikas and Nitesh win bronze medals on Wednesday. The two wrestlers were the only Indians to win medals in the category at U-23 World Wrestling Championships, joining Sajan Bhanwala.

Vikas defeated Daigo Kobayashi of Japan 6-0 in the 72 kg bronze medal match. The Indian wrestler defeated Adilkhan Nurlanbekov of Kyrgyzstan in the round of 16 and Marcos Sanchez Silva of Spain in the quarterfinal before losing to Pavel Puklavec of Croatia, who would go on to win the silver medal.

Kobayashi, who had lost to Puklavec in the quarterfinal, was easily defeated by Vikas, who had advanced to the bronze match by virtue of reaching the semifinals. Nitesh won the bronze medal in the men's 97kg division by out-technicaling Brazilian Igor de Queiroz.

In the qualifying rounds, Nitesh defeated Jose Arribas of Spain before overcoming Sami Ebrahim Samra of Egypt in the round of 16. But in the round of eight, Nitesh was defeated by eventual champion Alex Szoke of Hungary.

Nitesh easily defeated Serbian Luka Katic 13-4 in the repechage round to go to the bronze medal match. Greco-Roman competitions in the U-23 World Wrestling Championships has never produced a medal for India. India finished their Greco-Roman competition in Spain with three medals.

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