U-23 World Wrestling Championships: Vikas, Nitesh add two more bronze to India’s Greco Roman tally
Vikas won bronze in the 72kg while Nitesh won it in the 97kg. They joined Sajan Bhanwala to become India’s only U-23 worlds medallists in Greco Roman wrestling.
Indian wrestlers Vikas and Nitesh won bronze medals in the Greco Roman 72kg and 97kg categories, respectively, at the U-23 World Wrestling Championships 2022 in Pontevedra, Spain on Wednesday.
The two grapplers joined history-maker Sajan Bhanwala as the only Indian medallists in the Greco Roman at the U-23 world wrestling championships.
Vikas beat Japan’s Daigo Kobayashi 6-0 in the bronze medal bout of the 72kg.
The Indian wrestler beat Kyrgyzstan’s Adilkhan Nurlanbekov in the round of 16 and Spaniard Marcos Sanchez Silva in the quarter-final before falling to eventual silver-medallist Pavel Puklavec of Croatia in the semis.
Having qualified for the bronze bout by virtue of making the semis, Vikas made light work of Kobayashi, who had lost to Puklavec in the quarter-final.
In the men’s 97kg, Nitesh beat Brazilian Igor de Queiroz by technical superiority to clinch the bronze medal.
Nitesh made his way through the qualifiers, defeating Spain’s Jose Arribas before getting the better of Sami Ebrahim Samra of Egypt in the round of 16. However, Nitesh lost to eventual champion Alex Szoke of Hungary in the last eight.
In the repechage round, Nitesh convincingly beat Serbia’s Luka Katic 13-4 to make his way to the bronze medal bout.
India had never won a medal in Greco Roman at the U-23 World Wrestling Championships before. India ended their Greco Roman campaign with three medals in Spain.