India’s Lalit kept the country’s hopes of a rare Greco-Roman World Championships medal alive by advancing to the bronze medal bout with a convincing 7-0 victory over American Max Emiliano Nowry here.
Lalit will take on Kazakhstan’s Iskhar Kurbayev in the bronze medal playoff, with an opportunity to add to India’s limited success in Greco-Roman wrestling at the global level.
Sandeep Tulsi Yadav is the only Indian to win a World Championship medal, in 2013, claiming a bronze.
However, it was a disappointing day for three other Indian wrestlers, including Asian Games silver medallist Nitesh Siwach, who failed to progress beyond their opening bouts.
Siwach, competing in the 97kg category, was outclassed by Germany’s Anton Vieweg, who executed a four-point throw in each period to bring the contest to an end by technical superiority.
Karanjit (72kg) suffered a narrow 2-3 defeat against Japan’s Rintaro Sogabe in his qualification bout.
Karanjit had an advantageous ‘par terre’ position but failed to capitalise on it, with Sogabe instead scoring on the counter-attack to edge past the Indian.
In the 130kg category, Joginder Rathee ran into Turkish wrestling great Riza Kayaalp, the reigning European champion, and was comprehensively beaten.
Kayaalp produced three consecutive exposure moves before finishing the bout with a gut wrench, announcing his comeback to world after three years in style.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Read Desk. It is published from a syndicated feed)