Harpal Singh Bedi / New Delhi
World Junior Championships bronze medallist Veer Dev Gulia secured his place in the bronze medal contest in 79kg while Naveen (70kg) reached repechage. to keep his medal hopes alive at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
As the 18th seed in Qualifiers, Gulia was in top form as he defeated Hungary’s Botond Lukacs 3-1. With a strong 7-2 win over China’s Ligan Chai, he made it to the quarter-finals, where he was demolished Mongolia’s Batzul Damjin 12-1.
However the 22-year-old India’s winning run ended as he lost to Azerbaijan’s Abubakr Abakarov 8-1 in the semi finals. Gulia will now aim for the bronze today and his opponent is yet to be decided.
In 70kg, Naveen lost his qualifying bout to Russia’s 16th seed Chermen Valiev 0-11. But with the Russian making it to the final, Naveen got another chance to fight for a medal as he reached repechage against Mongolia’s Temuulen Enkhtuya with the match being scheduled at 3pm IST today.
On the first day of the championships, three Indians had made it to the quarter-finals with the others being Sharvan (65kg) and Akash Antil (97kg), besides Gulia. Second seed Sharvan, showed his attacking intent against the top seed Rifat Saibotalov of Kazakhstan to secure a tight 8-6 victory.
However the highly fancied lost to France’s Ilman Mukhtarov 6-10 in the quarters, and with the Frenchman failing to make it to the final, the Indian could not make it to repechage.
In 97kg, ninth seed Akash Antil dismantled China’s Li Xu 10-0 to start his campaign. In the last-eight, Ukraine’s Danylo Stasiuk inflicted a 9-5 defeat on him to dash his medal hopes.
In 57kg, Naveen crashed out in the qualifying round with an 0-11 loss to Turkey’s Ahmet Duman.
Ravinder will begin his challenge in 61kg as the third seed against the fourth-seeded Budai Kovacs of Hungary for a place in the quarters. In 74kg, Gaurav Baliyan takes on Vyshniak of Ukraine in the qualifiers while Sanjeet (86kg) will be in action against Zakuev of Russia in qualifiers.
In 92kg, as the second seed Viky has a tough opener against the top seed Scherrer of Switzerland in the Round of 16. Similarly, in 125kg, second-seeded Aryan Pratap finds himself up against the top seed Maghakyan of Armenia in the last-16.
More than 60 teams and 600 Under-23 wrestlers have participated in this prestigious tournament, where Men’s freestyle competition will be completed on the first two days followed by Women’s Wrestling, with the Greco Roman competition scheduled on the final three days.