Astana, Oct 26 India’s Greco-Roman wrestlers continued to disappoint at the World Championships as three of them, including Asian Games bronze medallist Sunil Kumar, suffered opening-round defeats in their respective weight divisions here Monday.
A better show was expected at least from Sunil, who recently became the only Indian wrestler to win two Asian Games medals, but he conceded two lifts from Norway’s Exauce Mukubu to lose by technical superiority (0-9) after being put into a ‘par terre’ position for passivity.
That the 87kg bout didn’t last even one full period spoke volumes about the Indian’s poor showing.
The others to bite the dust were Sahil (63kg) and Sachin Sahrawat (67kg).
Sahil lost 0-7 to Bulgaria’s Edmond Armen Nazaryan in the Qualification round. In a stunning move, the Bulgarian ducked under the Indian and threw him over his shoulder and later effected a gut wrench to tighten his grip over the bout.
The Indian could not launch a single attack.
Sahrawat lost 5-6 to South Korea’s Hanjae Chung.
Only Lalit came close to winning a medal in the competition. He had lost his bronze play-off in 55kg.
(PTI News)
