2019 World Wrestling Championship: Sakshi Malik outclassed in the opening bout

Ace wrestler Sakshi Malik’s dreams get stalled in the opening round of the women’s 62-kg category, as she suffered an upsetting 7-10 defeat to a fiery Nigerian Aminat Adeniyi at the ongoing World Wrestling Championship held in Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan. Aminat Adeniyi lost in her pre-quarterfinals earlier today, putting an end to Sakshi's chances of repechage bouts.

As we braced ourselves for a win, Sakshi proved us wrong and was outplayed by the African Championship gold medallist in the most lopsided bout. After losing out in the initial seconds of the bout, Sakshi failed to capitalise as a redoubtable Aminat made the most of Sakshi's frayed nerves to secure a comprehensive 10-7 win in the end. 

In men’s 65kg freestyle round of 16 bout, elite grappler Bajrang Punia took on the 5th seeded Krzysztof Bienkowski of Poland. He got an early lead due to passivity by the Polish wrestler and followed it up with a takedown which took him 4-0. A poor challenge call on a caution by Bienkowski saw the Indian going 5-0 up. However, Bienkowski managed to reduce the deficit with a takedown and made it 5-2. Bajrang, who has been in top form over the last year or so and is the reigning Asian champion, then prevailed and went to win the bout 9-2 and book a place in the quarterfinals.

In other bouts of the day, Ravi Kumar, seeded 25th, sealed an impressive 11-4 win over Korea's Kim Sunggwon in just two minutes and 59 seconds, while in women’s 68kg, Divya Kakran lost 0-2 to Olympic champion Sara Dosho of Japan. The last time that the two wrestlers had met, the Indian was completely outwrestled. On Thursday, though, her defence stood strong. However, she faced the shot clock twice due to passivity and lost the bout 2-0. Divya will now hope that Dosho reaches the final and she can make it to the repechage round.