India’s Ravi Kumar reached the final of the Under-23 Wrestling World Championships in the 57kg freestyle category after defeating Jahongirmirza Turobov of Uzbekistan in the semi-final in Bucharest, Romania on Friday.
The 10-8 win against the Uzbek wrestler ensured India’s first medal at the ongoing championships.
Kumar will take on Japan’s Toshihiro Hasegawa in the final on Saturday. Toshihiro defeated China’s Wanhao Zou 5-2 in the another semi-final.
He had earlier defeated Taras Markovych of Ukraine 12-4 in the quarterfinal. In the pre-quarterfinal, the Indian defeated Razvan Marian Kovacs of Romania 7-5.
Ravi Kumar will now hope to go one better than Bajrang Punia (65kg, 2017) and Omprakash Vinod Kumar (70kg, 2017) and become the first Indian to win the gold medal at this event.