Hardeep Singh lost his first bout at World Championships.
The first day of the Wrestling World Championships did not turn out to be a fruitful one for India as all four wrestlers who were in action on Monday bowed out of the competition without winning a single bout in Paris. Beginning with the Greco-Roman category, the Senior World Championships saw wrestlers compete on the first day in Paris in the 71kg, 75kg, 85kg and 98kg categories.
India had fielded a wrestler in each of theses categories but got no results. In the 71kg category, Yogesh of India suffered an opening round loss to Takeshi Izumi of Japan. Though it was a 3-1 loss, it ended the Indian’s campaign as the Japan wrestler lost in the quarter-finals and failed to give Yogesh a chance in repechage.
In the 75kg category, Gurpreet Singh faced Mindia Tsulukidze of Georgia in the opening round. He also had a bad start which ended in a 1-5 defeat against his opponent. The Georgian then lost in the quarters which ended the campaign for Gurpreet.
Khatri, who had represented India at the Rio Olympics, met with similar fate as he lost his opening round bout to Viktor Lorincz of Hungary via technical superiority as his opponent made a difference of eight points in the score. The wrestler from Hungary lost in the quarter-final ending the Worlds for the Indian.
India’s last wrestler on day one was Hardeep who had also represented India at the Rio Olympics. In the 98kg opening round bout, Hardeep faced Vilius Laurinaitis of Lithuania and though he scored two points, he lost 5-2. Even Laurinaitis did not advance to the final and Hardeep did not get a chance in repechage.
Four Indian wrestlers will be in action on Tuesday as Greco-Roman competitions continue in Paris. The categories that will see wrestlers compete on Tuesday are 59kg, 66kg, 80kg and 130kg.
