It was a bittersweet day for Indian wrestlers as Bajrang Punia (65kg) and Ravi Kumar Dahiya (57kg) secured Tokyo Olympic quotas for India but went down fighting in the semifinals of World Wrestling Championships 2019 in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan on Thursday.
Both will, however, still have a shot at a medal as they will contest for the bronze on Friday.
In the women's 59kg, Pooja Dhanda's hopes of becoming India's first multi-medallist woman wrestler were dashed as she lost her bronze medal bout.
Being the only Indian with two World Championships medals under his belt, Punia was always the top favourite to secure the coveted gold in 65kg as the top seed in his bracket. Especially with the kind of sterling form he has been in, the reigning Asian champion had set his eyes on nothing less than the top podium, having missed it by a whisker last year.
It, however, was not to be even though the 25-year-old made a dazzling start to his campaign. Starting off with an easy 9-2 win over Poland's Krzysztof Bienkowski, he looked sharp and hungry for the gold. After coasting to a 3-0 win over David Habat of Slovenia, he followed it up by dominating North Korean grappler, Jong Chol Son, 8-1.
While that brought him the Tokyo ticket and a place in the semi-finals, it was the next round where Bajrang's resolve was not enough to bring him a win. Even though he came back from 2-9 down to level 9-9 with former Asian champion Daulet Niazbekov in the final two minutes, the Kazakh was awarded the win courtesy of his 4-point throw in the second period.
While World No. 1 Bajrang's loss was a shock, U-23 World Championships silver medallist Kumar (57kg) was a revelation. Ravi made his senior debut at the Asian Championships this year in April but showed terrific maturity in bagging India's second Olympic quota of the day.
After kickstarting his challenge with a one-sided 11-0 win over Kim Sunggwon of Korea, he took it up further by prevailing over the European champion Arsen Harutyunyan 17-6. He did not stop there and continued his impeccable show against former world champion Yuki Takahashi whom he beat 6-1. This win also fetched him a prized berth at the Olympics next year.
Ultimately, Kumar's stunning display was halted by Russian world champion Zaur Uguev. He did storm back from 0-6 down to close to within 4-6 before embracing the defeat. He will fight for his maiden Worlds medal on Friday.
In the non-Olympic category, Dhanda fought back tremendously against Asian Games silver medallist Pei Xingru to reduce the gap between the two after trailing 1-5. However, all she could manage was a couple and had to accept a 3-5 loss at the hands of the Chinese.
Rio Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik (62kg) showed her grit in fighting her way back from a 2-10 deficit against Commonwealth Games champion Aminat Adeniyi of Nigeria but ultimately fell short 7-10 in her opening bout.
For Commonwealth and Asian Games bronze medallist Divya Kakran (68kg), reigning Olympic and former world champion Sara Dosho of Japan proved to be a tough hurdle as she lost 0-2 in the first round.
Sushil in action today
Two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar will make his long-awaited return to the World Championships after eight years on Friday.
The 2010 world champion will begin his hunt for a second gold medal against European Championships bronze medallist Khadzhimurad Gadzhiyev in qualifying. In 92kg, Praveen will start from the qualifying rounds against Korea's Sue. In 125kg, reigning Commonwealth Games champion Sumit Malik will face Daniel Ligeti of Hungary while in 70kg, Karan will be up against 2016 Olympic bronze medallist Ikhtiyor Navruzov in their respective qualifying bouts.
