India’s chances of finally putting themselves up on the medals tally suffered more setbacks at the Wrestling World Championships in Lutte, Paris on Friday. Four categories of the men’s freestyle were played on the day and Indian grapplers continued to falter in the initial bouts.
In the 125 kg freestyle category, 24-year-old Sumit lost in his qualification bout to Russia’s Anzor Khizriev by a 4-0 margin. Sumit’s defeat was followed by Deepak in the 86 kg freestyle as he too bowed out in the qualification bout to Japan’s Masao Matsusaka.
Prospects of Deepak advancing to the repechage rounds came to an end right after after his Japanese opponent lost in his round-of-32 bout to Polish grappler Zbiegniew Baranowski. Sumit was out of the repechage rounds for bronze as Khizriev lost in round of 16.
Earlier, Sandeep Tomar and Harphool Gulia offered some consolation to India’s medal hopes as both claimed a place in the pre-quarters with a win in the 57 kg and 61 kg freestyle categories respectively. However, a loss to Turkish wrestler Cengizhan Erdogan in the round-of-16 ended Harphool’s prospects of progressing into the medal bouts ahead, forcing him to rely on Erdogan to make it to the finals in order to reach the repechage rounds.
Tomar, the 2016 Asian Wrestling Championships’ gold medallist clinched a narrow 3-2 win over Zavur Uguev of Russia in the qualification bout. But, then, he also faltered in the pre-quarters to Yuki Takahashi continuing the pattern so far in the tournament. He had a shot at a bronze repechage and won the first round but lost to Bekhbayar Erdenebat 0-10 in the second round to end India’s campaign.
