World U20 Wrestling Championships 2022: India’s Mahendra Babasaheb Gaikwad settles for silver
Mohit Kumar and Sagar Jaglan won a bronze each to take India’s tally to seven medals at the world championships. Priya (women’s 76kg) will fight for gold on Thursday.
India’s Mahendra Babasaheb Gaikwad won the silver medal in the men’s 125kg freestyle division at the World U20 Wrestling Championships 2022 in Sofia, Bulgaria on Wednesday. It was India’s first silver medal at the ongoing championships.
Mahendra Babasaheb Gaikwad, who bagged a silver at the junior Asian championships in Bahrain in July, lost the final to Iran’s Amirreza Fardin Masoumi Valadi, the 2021 Cadet World Champion, via technical superiority (13-2).
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Earlier, Mahendra Babasaheb Gaikwad registered a close 6-4 win over under-23 European championships bronze medallist Adil Misirci of Turkey in the quarter-finals.
The Maharashtra-based Indian wrestler then defeated Namoz Abdurashidov of Uzbekistan 6-0 in the semis to make the 125kg final at the U20 world wrestling championships.
Apart from Mahendra Babasaheb Gaikwad’s silver, Mohit Kumar (61kg) and Sagar Jaglan (74kg) also won a bronze each on Wednesday to take India’s medals tally at the World U20 Wrestling Championships 2022 to seven - one silver and six bronze.
Mohit Kumar began well by winning the first two bouts via technical superiority and beating U20 Asian championships bronze medallist Maiis Aliyev of Kazakhstan 10-4 in the quarter-finals.
However, Mohit Kumar, who won silver at the seniors Zouhaier Sghaier Ranking Series in Tunisia last month, lost 16-8 to the eventual champion Yuto Nishiuchi of Japan in the semi-finals.
Mohit Kumar then defeated Azerbaijan’s Jeyhun Allahverdiyev 7-0 to bring home the bronze.
Sagar Jaglan, meanwhile, pulled off a big win by defeating the reigning U20 Asian champion Erfan Mohammad Elahi of Iran 10-5 in the quarter-finals.
Sagar Jaglan, however, lost to Ryunosuke Kamiya of Japan 9-2 in the semis but blanked Kazakhstan’s Iliyas Yerbolatov via technical superiority (10-0) to settle for bronze.
In women’s wrestling, reigning cadet world champion Priya (76kg) made the cut for the gold medal match with a narrow 6-5 win over the U20 European champion Veronika Nyikos of Hungary in the semi-finals.
In the qualification round, Priya inflicted a fall upon Kazakhstan’s Alina Yertostik and then scored a 6-4 win over Turkey’s Melisa Saritac in the quarter-finals.
Priya will face Japan’s Ayano Moro in the final on Thursday. Priyanshi Prajapat (50kg) and Manju (55kg), meanwhile, will vie for bronze.
Bhagyashree Hanumant Fand (59kg) and Arju (68kg) will have to fight through the repechage rounds to qualify for the bronze medal play-offs on Thursday.