Wrestlers Baliyan, Deepak to fight for bronze medals after losing their semifinals of junior world championship

Ufa (Russia), August 16

Wrestlers Gourav Baliyan (79kg) and Deepak (97kg) were on Monday outplayed in their respective semifinals of the junior world championship and will fight for bronze medals, here.

Shubham (57kg) and Rohit (65kg) are also in contention for bronze as they have got repechage rounds after their conquerors made the finals.

Baliyan, who had attempted to stake claim in the senior Indian team in the 74kg trials last year, beat two of his rivals without any fuss but was overpowered by Iran’s Mohammad Ashghar Nokhodilarimi, losing the last-four clash by technical superiority.

The Iranian had won the senior title at the Yasar Dogu event in June this year.

Baliyan began by defeating Tajikistan’s Abubakr Shukurov by technical superiority as his two four-point throws stood out and then got past Russia’s Alik Badtiev 5-2 in the quarterfinals.

In the 97kg, Deepak opened his campaign with a 5-1 win over Aliaksei Parkhomenka from Belarus and followed that up with a commanding 9-4 victory against Georgia’s Luka Khutchua.

Later, he lost tamely 1-9 to America’s Braxton James Amos, who has switched to men’s free style from Greco Roman.

In the 57kg competition, Shubham was no match for Russia’s Ramazan Bagavudinov, whose superior technical acumen was on display in the quarterfinal bout.

Since Bagavudinov later reached the final, Shubham is back in the competition and will fight in the repechage round.

Jaideep (70kg) and Rohit (65kg) won their opening bouts but later lost the quarterfinals to their respective Russian opponents.

Russia’s Mamedov made the final, giving a comeback chance to Rohit. PTI