India’s Olympic silver medallist Ravi Dahiya is out of the Wrestling World Championships after losing to Uzbekistan’s Gulomjon Abdullaev in the 57kg Round of 16 bout on Friday.
World No. 2 Dahiya lost by technical superiority (10-0) to Abdullaev in a rather one-sided bout. Dahiya, who won the silver at the Tokyo Olympics last year, will not be contesting in repechage for bronze as Abdullaev lost to Albanian wrestler Zelimkhan Abakarov.
Dahiya had defeated Razvan Marian Kovacs of Romania by technical superiority (10-0) in the first round 10-0.
It was never going to be an easy outing for Dahiya as he has 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 in Istanbul in February, he could not go past Abakarov, who won by technical superiority (13-2) to book his semifinal spot.
Meanwhile, Naveen Malik also suffered defeat in the bronze medal match against World No. 1 Ernazar Akmataliev of Kyrgyzstan 1-4.
On Saturday, Sagar Jaglan will be in contention for a bronze medal. He won his opening two bouts on Friday but lost the quarterfinal match against defending champion and Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Kyle Dake. Dake went on to reach the final which opened up Jaglan’s chances in the repechage.
Another Indian wrestler Vicky Hooda lost his qualification match in the 72kg event.
