Ravi Kumar Dahiya lost to Uzbekistan’s Gulomjon Abdullaev 10-0 via technical superiority in the 57kg category quarter-finals of the World Wrestling Championships in Belgrade, Serbia on Friday.
Dahiya will not be contesting in repechage for Bronze after Abdullaev lost to Albanian wrestler Zelimkhan Abakarov. He had defeated Razvan Marian Kovacs of Romania in the first round 10-0 himself.
On the other hand, Naveen entered the bronze medal match after beating World No. 4 Syrbaz Talgat of Uzbekistan in 70kg opening round of repechage 11-3. 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.
He will face Ernazar Akmatalieve of Kyrgyzstan in the bronze medal match later this evening.
Ravi, who is ranked world number two, had arguably his brightest chance of winning a gold medal, with the Olympics silver medallist being seeded second as the reigning Olympic champion Zaur Uguev of Russia is not participating.
He did have a flawless run in 2022, with the 24-year-old having won gold at the Asian Championships in April and Commonwealth Games in August.
Earlier on Wednesday, Vinesh Phogat became the first Indian woman wrestler to win two medals at the World Championships as she clinched a bronze in 53kg by defeating Emma Jonna Malmgren of Sweden.
The 28-year-old Vinesh had also won a bronze in the 2019 edition in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. It was a remarkable comeback for Vinesh after her opening round defeat as she beat Malmgren 8-0 in the bronze medal round. She had made it to the bronze play-off via the repechage round.
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