Three Indian free-style wrestlers were eliminated in the second round of the UWW World Championships on day one, with only the 70kg grappler Abhimanyu advancing to the quarterfinals on Saturday.
Abhimanyu, who won bronze at the U23 World Championships in June and is ranked 26th in the world, upset Ukrainian world No.7 Ihor Nykyforuk 19-9 with a victory by fall (VFA) before defeating Moldova's Nicolai Grahmez 13-2 (technical superiority) to advance to the quarterfinals.
However, he will face world No.2 from the United States, 28-year-old Zain Allen Retherford, who finished second at the 2022 World Championships in Belgrade last year.
The World Championships are the 2024 Olympic qualification tournament for Paris.
After the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) was suspended for failing to organise elections within the timeframe specified by the world organisation, India is competing in the global tournament under the United World Wrestling (UWW) flag.
In the first round, Abhimanyu outperformed the higher-ranked Nykyforuk, finishing in 5 minutes, 41 seconds.
The event was called off 2.41 minutes into the second three-minute period, after Abhimanyu had dominated the opening three minutes, gaining a 5-0 lead.
Despite starting on a high note, defeating his Moldovan opponent Leomid Colesnic by an overwhelming 10-5 score, Akash Dahiya (61kg) lost his pre-quarterfinal match to Uzbekistan's world No.6 Jahongirmirza Turobov.
Dahiya, ranked 21st in the world, was no match for Turobov, the gold medalist at the 2021 Asian Championships, who won by fall (7-4).
Sandeep Mann won by technical superiority (10-0) over Dejan Mitrov of North Macedonia in the 86kg free-style category, but was no match for Lin Zushen in the second round of qualification, losing 0-11 with the referee declaring the Chinese winner on technical superiority with nearly 45 seconds remaining in the contest.
Sumit, India's 125kg grappler, lost his pre-quarterfinal match to Poland's Robert Baran following an easy first-round qualification match against Japanese Taiki Yamamoto, whom he defeated 3-1.
The seventh-seeded Polish wrestler, who was a silver medalist at the European Championships and a quarterfinalist at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, was simply too strong for the Indian, claiming a 3-0 'win by decision' VPO.
(With PTI inputs)
