U-23 World C'ship: Ravinder stuns Euro champ to make the 61kg finals

Ravinder upset reigning European Champion Arsen Harutyunyan of Armenia in the semis to storm into the  61 kg finals at the U-23 World Wrestling Championships in Budapest, Hungary on Tuesday. The 22-year old Ravinder outsmarted the Armenian who started as an overwhelming favourite in the semi-final bout and as per his billing took 3-0 lead by end of the round one. In round 2, Ravinder showed great fighting spirit to score the succor move to which the Arsen did not have any reply.  Ravinder finally won the bout by fall and became the first wrestler from India in this edition of the U23 World championship to enter the finals.

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Ravinder stuns Euro champ

In the finals, Ravinder will meet Ulukbek Zholdoshbekov of Kyrigistan who defeated Japanese wrestlers in the semifinals. Earlier, Ravinder had scored victories over experienced campaigners from Russia and host Hungary. In the Last 16 bout, Ravinder defeated Marcell Budai Kovacs of Hungary by 12-1 scoreline.  In the quarterfinals, the Indians got the better of Dinislam Takhtarov of Russia.

Another top bout was the matchup between two of the world’s most promising junior wrestlers -- 18-year-old Gaurav Baliyan, cadet world championship silver medallist in 2018 and 21-year old Zhamalov of Russia, 2018 Junior world championship silver medallist. The young guns of the world wrestling did not disappoint and ended up giving display which was a treat for the fans in the stadium and otherwise. Both of them matched each other move by move as the first round ended marginally in the favor of Russia with 2-1 lead.

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The round 2 was the real thriller as Gaurav immediately scored 2 to lead 3-2. The see-saw battle continued for the next 3 minutes in which the Russian finally prevailed over the Indian by 12-9 scoreline. Earlier, 18-year-old Gaurav Baliyan who is making his U23 international debut with this event started in a grand style on Day 2 of the UWW World Wrestling Championships2019 in Budapest. 2018 Cadet world championship silver medallist showed great composure and skills to defeat Oleksandr Vyshniak of Ukraine in the freestyle 74kg weight category. Baliyan who is considered as a bright prospect for the Indian wrestling justified his selection by defeating the Ukrainian 11-0 on his senior debut by technical superiority.

In the 86kg Qualification round,  Sanjeet was up against the Azamat Zakuev of Russia in the first round. 22-year-old Sanjeet was no match for the tough Russian and lost out in a one-sided scoreline by 0-6.  Earlier, Day 2 of the U23 Championships began on a bad note for India when India’s Naveen lost his opening repechage bout to the wrestler from Mongolia.  Naveen who at one point of time had taken lead in the bout, eventually lost 6-8 to Enkhtuya from Mongolia to crash out before the medal round.

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