India’s barren campaign at World Wrestling Championships ends

Paris, Aug 26: The Indian campaign at the 2017 World Wrestling Championships ended in bitter disappointment on Saturday with freestyle grapplers Bajrang Punia (65kg), Praveen Rana (74kg), Amit Dhankar (70kg) and Satyawart Kadiyan (97) crashing out in their respective weight categories.

Punia and Rana did raise hopes by entering the pre-quarterfinals, but a medal at this year's edition of the mega event remained elusive for India.

Punia, the reigning Asian champion, lost 6-5 in the pre-quarterfinals to Zurabi Iakobishvili of Georgia in a hard-fought bout.

Rana was up against former European champion Jabrayil Hasanov of Azerbaijian in his pre-quarterfinal bout. 

Hasanov — a bronze medallist at last year's Rio Olympics — was far too superior to the relatively inexperienced Rana and won convincingly by a 5-0 margin.

Dhankar also produced a disappointing performance, going down 2-9 to Akzhurek Tanatarov of Kazakhstan in the qualification round. 

Kadiyan lost 0-5 to Georgy Ketoev of Armenia in the qualification round of the 97kg category.