World Wrestling Championships: Ravi Dahiya loses in qualification round

In a major upset at the ongoing World Wrestling Championships, ace Indian wrestler and Olympic silver medallist Ravi Dahiya was ousted in the qualification rounds.

The ouster means that the Indian grappler is now out of medal contention at the marquee event taking place in Belgrade, Serbia. Ravi Dahiya lost to Uzbekistan’s Gulomjon Abdullaev by technical superiority (0-10) in the 57kg qualification round here on Friday.

While Dahiya made an early exit, there was much else to be happy about in the Indian camp. Now, the focus will shift to Naveen as he will be eyeing a bronze medal after beating World No. 4 Syrbaz Talgat of Uzbekistan 11-3 in the 70kg opening round of repechage.

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Ravi Dahiya loses in one-sided bout at World Wrestling Championships

The bout that crushed Ravi Dahiya's hopes of winning a medal was one-sided with the Indian star not being able to make one good move to counter his Uzbekistani opponent.

Dahiya, who won the silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics last year, will not make it to the repechage rounds for the bronze medal too as Abdullaev lost to Albanian wrestler Zelimkhan Abakarov.

Earlier, Dahiya had defeated Razvan Marian Kovacs of Romania by technical superiority (10-0) in the first round.

However, it was never going to be an easy outing for the 24-year-old as he had lost to World No. 30 Abdullaev multiple times in the past.

Even though Abdullaev exacted revenge over Dahiya after his loss in the UWW Ranking Series event (Yasar Dogu 2022) in Istanbul in February, the Uzbek could not go past Abakarov, who won by technical superiority (13-2) to book his semifinal spot.

On the other hand, Naveen’s win took him directly to the bronze medal match as his next-round opponent Ilyas Bekbulatov (Uzbekistan) couldn’t compete due to an injury.

India's Nisha, who was poised for a podium finish at the ongoing World Wrestling Championships, had to concede her match after sustaining a knee injury. Prior to Nisha Dahiya suffering an injury in her medal bout, Vinesh Phogat opened India's account by winning a bronze medal in the women’s 53kg event at the World Wrestling Championships.