2022 CWG gold medallist Naveen Malik also misses out on bronze
NEW DELHI: Olympic silver medallist and world No. 2 Ravi Dahiya made a shock exit from the Wrestling World Championships in Belgrade after losing his pre-quarterfinal bout by technical superiority (10-0) to Uzbekistan's Gulomjon Abdullaev. Dahiya had defeated Abdullaev earlier in the year in the title bout of the Yasar Dogu ranking series in Istanbul.
Later, the 23-year-old Uzbek lost (13-2) in the quarters to Albania's Zelimkhan Abakarov to dash Dahiya's chances of making the repechage round for a shot at the bronze. It would be the first time since the Tokyo Games that Dahiya will return empty-handed from a major tournament he had competed in.
Meanwhile, Birmingham CWG champion Naveen Malik went down 1-4 to Kyrgyzstan's Ernazar Akmataliev in their m en's freestyle 70kg bronze medal playoff to draw curtains on his campaign. Naveen trailed Akmataliev 1-2 in the first round and, with less than 11 seconds left in the second and final period, the Kyrgyz effected an exposure move to pin Naveen down on the mat for a hard-fought win.
Earlier, Naveen, who had won the CWG gold in the 74kg, qualified for the bronze medal match after defeating Uzbekistan's Syrbaz Talgat 11-3 in his opening repechage round. His next round opponent, Uzbekistan's Ilyas Bekbulatov, didn't take the mat due to an injury, an outcome which took Naveen directly to the playoff against Akmatalieve.
Dahiya had skipped the World Championships last year due to fitness issues and lack of preparation time for the selection trials held ahead of the Oslo event. He had claimed the bronze in his debut Worlds at Nur-Sultan in 2019. Dahiya was coming into the tournament on the back of his successful outing at the Birmingham CWG where he had clinched gold in the men's freestyle 57kg category.
Two other Indians in the fray, Sagar Jaglan (74kg) and Vicky Hooda (92kg), also lost their respective bouts to bow out of gold medal contention. Jaglan scored twin wins over Israel's Mitchell Finesilver (15-4) and Mexican Diego Sandoval (13-2) to reach the quarters before losing by fall to USA's Kyle Dake inside a minute. Hooda, on the other hand, lost a closely-contested qualification round match to Poland's Radoslaw Marcinkiewicz 4-3.
