New Delhi, Oct 30 (UNI) Ravinder confirmed India’s first medal from the UWW Under-23 World Championships 2019 as he made it to the final of 61kg in Budapest, Hungary on Tuesday.
The 22-year-old put up a commanding display to pin senior European champion Arsen Harutyunan of Armenia to storm into the final with a 4-3 win.
Earlier, he had notched up a 12-1 win over Hungary’s Marcell Budai Kovacs in his opening bout and then followed it up with an 11-0 demolition of 2019 Russian National Freestyle Wrestling Championships bronze medallist Dinislam Takhtarov in the quarter-finals.
The Sonipat grappler, who won gold at the South Asian Games in 2016 and also a bronze at the Cadet Asian Championships in 2014, will be aiming for the biggest achievement of his career when he takes on Kyrgyzstan’s Ulukbek Zholdoshbekov in the summit showdown that is scheduled to take place at 2230 hrs tonight.
In 74kg, Gaurav Baliyan will get another chance to take a medal after he made it to repechage, where he faces Brady Gary Berge of US at 1500 hrs.
The women will also begin their challenge on Wednesday. In the 50kg category, 10th seeded Jyoti will take on Yafremenka of Belarus, while Pooja Yadav has a tough opener in 59kg as she faces the top seed Kennett of Canada.
Rani Rana in 55kg and Suman in 68kg will start their campaign from the qualifiers. While the former takes on USA’s Parrish, the latter has China’s Wang in her opening bout.
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