Harpal Singh Bedi
Ravinder won India’s first medal,in the ongoing U-23 World Wrestling Championships as he grabbed the silver medal in 61kg in Budapest, Hungary on Wednesday.
Ravinder led till the end of the first period but a strong comeback from Kyrgyzstan’s Ulukbek Zholdoshbekov ensured that the latter won the bout 5-3 by superiority of play. Ravinder did try hard and used a strong flip in the second period to get two points but that was in vain as he had to settle for the silver medal.
22-year-old Ravinder is from Sonipat, Haryana and works at the Indian Air Force. He finished 5th in U-23 World Championship in 2017 after losing in the semi-finals.
As luck would have it, he was struck by an ACL injury in 2017 during the ongoing camp of the Asian Championships. It took him a year and a half to completely recover from the injury .He made the most of his comeback at the U-23 Nationals by winning a gold and a berth in the Indian Squad for the U23 WC.
Earlier, Jyoti (50kg) lost her semi-final bout to Japan’s Kika Kagata 4-15. She will now fight for the bronze on Thursday.
Jyoti (50kg) had earlier in the day made a fantastic start to her medal hunt as women began their challenge on Wednesday. With a 6-1 win over Belarus’ Tatsiana Yafremenka, the youngster made it to the quarters, where she notched up a quickfire 12-2 win over Moldova’s Maria Leorda.
While Jyoti dazzled on the mat, the rest of the women failed to emulate her. In 55kg, Rani Rana was blanked 0-6 by USA’s Dominique Olivia Parrish in the qualifiers while Suman put up better efforts in her qualifying bout against China’s Yingying Wang, only to go down 4-6.
In 59kg, Pooja Yadav’s campaign was cut short by top seed Tiana Grace Kennett, who dealt her a 6-2 blow.