Wrestling
Wrestling Trials: Bajrang Punia,Ravi Dahiya stunned; will miss Olympic qualifiers
Tokyo Olympic medallists Bajrang and Ravi failed to make the cut for the Asian Olympic qualifiers, as they lost in the 65kg and 57kg trials.
Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Bajrang Punia react during his bout at an event.
Sonipat: It was a day of big upsets as the big boys of Indian wrestling Olympic medallists Bajrang Punia and Ravi Dahiya lost on the first day of wrestling trials for the upcoming Asian Olympic qualifiers at the Sushil Kumar-Yogeshwar Dutt Wrestling Hall, SAI Centre, Sonipat in Haryana on Sunday.
2020 Tokyo Olympic medalists Bajrang and Ravi lost in the 65kg and 57kg trials for the upcoming Asian Olympic qualifiers, to be held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
Multiple World Championships medallist Bajrang was stunned by Rohit Kumar in the semifinals as Rohit prevailed in the one-sided contest 9-1.
Bajrang took a point at the start as Rohit was warned for passivity. However, Rohit wasn’t passive afterwards and pushed Bajrang out of the mat twice in the first round to take a lead of 2-1.
Rohit came out more aggressively in the second half and took down Bajrang with a powerful move to win four points and lead 6-2.
Bajrang was chasing the game thereafter and conceded three more points to lose the contest 9-1.
Earlier in the first round, Bajrang won against Ravinder 3-3, but he didn’t look at his best. Bajrang didn’t turn up for the bronze medal match later.
Ravi Dahiya loses
Silver medalist at Tokyo Olympics, Ravi Dahiya lost two consecutive matches in round robin of 57kg trials against Aman Sehrawat and Udit to crash out of the trials.
The 57kg trials were played in Nordic style as only seven wrestlers registered for the trials.
Ravi Dahiya started with an 8-4 win in the first match against Amit but looked shaky in the next. Facing Asian Games medallist Aman Sehrawat in the next match, Ravi lost a close bout 13-14.
After going down 4-12 against Aman, Ravi tried to make a comeback and took nine points but Aman held on to his lead.
In the must-win match against Udit, Ravi fell behind again and tried to chase the bout only to lose 8-10 at the end.
Another upset happened in 74 kg where National champion Naveen Malik and Asian Championship medalist Yash lost as Jaideep emerged as the winner.
Jaideep defeated Yash in the final while Yash had earlier defeated Naveen in the quarters.
