U23 World Wrestling Championship: Ravinder moves into the final, secures India's first medal

Budapest: Ravinder secured India’s first medal at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championship after advancing to the 61kg category final. [caption id=“attachment_7573671” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Ravinder beat Arsen Harutyunan to move into the U23 World Wrestling Championships in Budapest. Image: Screengrab/UWW[/caption] The 22-year-old pinned senior European champion Arsen Harutyunan of Armenia to storm into the final with a 4-3 win on Tuesday night, a statement from Wrestling Federation of India said. Earlier, he had notched up a 12-1 win over Hungary’s Marcell Budai Kovacs in his opening bout and then followed it up with an 11-0 demolition of Russia’s Dinislam Takhtarov in the quarter-finals. The Sonipat grappler, who won gold at the South Asian Games in 2016 and also a bronze at the Cadet Asian Championships in 2014, will be aiming for the biggest achievement of his career when he takes on Kyrgyzstan’s Ulukbek Zholdoshbekov in the summit showdown that is scheduled to take place on Wednesday night. In 74kg, Gaurav Baliyan will get another chance to take a medal after he made it to repechage, where he faces USA’s Brady Gary Berge. Baliyan made a fantastic start against Oleksandr Vyshniak of Ukraine in the qualifiers, whom he blanked 11-0.

His challenge, however, came to an end at the hands of Russia’s Razambek Zhamalov. But with Zhamalov reaching the final, Baliyan was presented with another opportunity. Also on Wednesday, the women will begin their campaign. In 50kg, 10th-seeded Jyoti faces ninth seed Yafremenka of Belarus while Pooja Yadav has a tough opener in 59kg, against top seed Kennett of Canada. Rani Rana in 55kg and Suman in 68kg will start their campaign from the qualifiers.