Pooja Gehlot lost the 53kg category final in UWW Under-23 World Championships 2019 to Japan’s Haruna Okuno to satisfy herself with a silver in Budapest. She went down 0-2 to the 2017 world champion and emulated the freestyle expert Ravinder’s feat, who also bagged a silver earlier this week in 61 kg category.
The three-time World Junior Wrestling Championships medalist Sajan Bhanwal (77kg), on the other hand, got defeated in a close semi-final bout by Japan’s Kodai Sakuraba. He lost the bout 4-5 and will not take the mat for his bronze-medal match on Saturday.
Bhanwal had stormed into the semis after easing past his Swedish opponent Per Albin Olofsson 6-2 in the quarter-final. One of the best Greco-Roman talents to have emerged from India, Bhanwal went into the quarters on the back of 6-0 win against Jesse Alexander Porter in the qualifiers and a 3-1 victory over Azerbaijan’s Tunjay Vazirzade in the pre-quarters.
Another Indian in Greco-Roman category, Arjun Halakurki made it to the repechage even though his good run in 55kg had come to an end in the quarters. He went down 12-14 to Russia’s Narimanovitch Sefershaev but received the chance of repechage after his quarter-final opponent made it to the summit clash.
In the 87kg category, Sunil Kumar had made it to the pre-quarterfinals after defeating Sid Azara of Algeria 7-2. However, he walked through the door of exit in the very next round after he was beaten 8-0 by Ukraine’s Semen Novikov.
While in 63kg Rajeet bowed out of the Championships in the opening round after losing 0-8 to top-seeded Slavik Galstyan, Deepak Poonina in 130kg lost the opening bout as well. He failed to create any impact before succumbing to a 1-6 defeat at the hands of David Tate Orndorff of the USA.