World Wrestling Championships: Lalit stays in medal race, three others bow out on opening day

Lalit needs to win two bouts on Sunday to win a bronze medal via repechage. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

India expectedly endured a tough outing on the opening day of the World Wrestling Championship, with only Lalit managing to stay in the medal race in the 55kg category while three other Greco-Roman wrestlers were eliminated here Saturday.

Harsh (60kg), Lovepreet Singh (77kg) and Prince (82kg) lost their opening bouts to bow out.

Lalit looked down and out against Turkiye’s Omer Halis Recep in the round of 16, trailing 0-7 and standing just one point away from defeat.

However, the Indian produced a stunning turnaround, reeling off nine consecutive points to register a 9-7 victory and keep his campaign alive.

But his next opponent was strong. He was up against Iran’s 2025 U20 world champion and reigning senior world silver medallist Payam Farzad Ahmadi, who wasted little time in securing a win by technical superiority.

Ahmadi later reached the final, opening up the repechage route for Lalit, who now needs to win two bouts on Sunday to win a bronze medal.

Sandeep Tulsi Yadav is the only Indian Greco-Roman wrestler to have won a medal at the World Championships — a bronze at the 2013 edition in Budapest, Hungary.

The other three Indians failed to progress from their opening bouts.

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Lovepreet lost to Uzbekistan’s Doniyorkhon Nakibov by technical superiority (0-8) in the qualification round, while Prince suffered a 1-3 defeat against Serbia’s Viktor Nemes.

Harsh went down by technical superiority (0-9) to Kyrgyzstan’s Kurmanbek Zhaparov in his qualification bout.

The three Indians hardly showed any stomach for fight with Prince not utilising even the ‘par terre’ position against his rival.

Competition will continue in Greco-Roman style on Sunday featuring bouts in 72kg, 97kg and 130kg weight divisions.