WrestlerRavinder bags silver at junior Worlds

Ufa (Russia), Aug. 18: Ravinder settled for a silver medal after being outwitted by his Iranian opponent but Bipasha emerged a surprise finalist in the women’s 76kg to keep India’s gold medal hopes alive at the junior world wrestling championship, here on Wednesday.

Yash (74kg), Pruthvi Babasehb Patil (92kg) and Anirudh (125kg) grabbed bronze medals as India finished their men’s free style campaign with six medals.

Gourav Baliyan (79kg) and Deepak (97kg) had won bronze on Tuesday.

Up against a strong

Rahman Mousa Amouzadkhalili, who had won the Yasar Dogu senior event in June this year, Ravinder could not make his moves as he was largely left to defend in the 61kg title clash. The Iranian kept Ravinder tangled in head and body locks to win comfortably 9-3.

In 74kg play-off, Yash first scored a confident 92 win over Armen Musikyan from Armenia and then pulled off a 12-6 win over Kyrgyzstan’s Stambul Zhanybek Uulu after trailing 2-5. Yash changed the bout in the last 90 seconds with his timely quick moves.

Stambul perhaps got overconfident after taking lead and Yash was quick to take advantage after his rival dropped his guard a bit.

Patil took bronze in 92kg after edging past Russia’s Ivan Kirillov 2-1 in the play-off. Patil was trailing on criteria after both wrestlers scored points on each others passivity but the Russian was imposed a point penalty for foul play, and that proved decisive.

Anirudh (125kg) also added a bronze to India’s tally with an impressive 7-2 win over Aydin Ahmadov from Azebaijan. —