India's Bajrang Punia (65kg) created history as he became the first Indian wrestler to win three medals in the World Wrestling Championships. Top seed Punia edged fourth seed Tulga Tumur Ochir of Mongolia 8-7 at Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, to take home the bronze medal to add to the silver he won in 2018 and the bronze in 2013. 

Bajrang Punia, Ravi Kumar win Bronze

A day after he lost a very close semi-final, Punia made a slow start to his bronze medal bout and even trailed 2-6 at the end of the first period. A burst of aggression in the second period allowed him to make a stunning comeback to take the coveted medal. The day got even better for the Indian contingent with U-23 World Championships silver medallist Ravi Kumar Dahiya (57kg) adding a bronze to India’s medal tally as well, in his debut appearance at the prestigious event. These are India’s second and third medals from the World Wrestling Championships this year following a bronze in 53kg of the women’s event brought home by Vinesh Phogat.

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Ravi Kumar's stellar performance at World Championships debut

Former world champion Sushil Kumar’s return to the world stage, however, lasted only one round as he lost his 74kg opener. Both Bajrang and Ravi had confirmed their Tokyo 2020 Olympic tickets a day earlier. The 2015 Junior World Championships silver medallist Ravi showed terrific maturity in downing Iran’s Asian champion Reza Ahmadali Atrinagharchi 6-3 for a dream first outing at the Worlds.

Meanwhile, Parveen Rana (92kg) was the only one of the Indian wrestlers beginning his campaign today, who managed to win a bout. Rana made a bright start to his challenge when he beat Korea’s Changjae Sue 12-1 by technical superiority. He could not do much in the Round of 16 where Ukraine’s Liubomyr Sagaliuk brushed him aside in an 8-0 win. 2010 world champion Sushil Kumar’s comeback to the World Championships after eight years proved short-lived as he lost his first-round bout 9-11 to world junior champion Khadzhimurad Gadzhiyev of Azerbaijan in 74kg. 36-year-old Sushil had a 9-4 lead in this battle of generations but lost seven consecutive points to concede the bout.

Reigning Commonwealth Games champion Sumit Malik too failed to win a round after going down 0-2 to two-time European Championships medallist Daniel Ligeti of Hungary. Karan Mor was no better in 70kg. Ikhtiyor Navruzov of Uzbekistan proved to be a roadblock for him as the Indian was completely outplayed in a 0-7 verdict.

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