Wrestlers continue poor show at World Championships

Paris, Aug 25: India's poor show at the World Wrestling Championships continued on Friday with Sandeep Tomar (57kg), Harphool Gulia (61kg), Deepak (86kg) and Sumit Malik (125kg) biting the dust in their respective weight categories in the men's Freestyle competition.

Tomar did give a good account of himself in the first round however, overpowering Zavur Uguev of Russia by a 8-2 margin.

The Indian started the bout on a cautious note and was a bit defensive in the opening two minutes. That saw him being slapped with a 30 second penalty which meant he had to earn a point within that time in order to avoid conceding one point to his opponent.

However, Uguev was successful in staving off Tomar during the penalty period which saw him take a 1-0 lead. 

Tomar was more aggressive after the break and pulled off a superb four-point move in the fourth minute of the second period to take a 4-1 lead. The Russian tried hard to stage a comeback, but the Indian continued to rack up the points and clinched a comfortable victory.

Tomar however, was no match for reigning Asia Champion Yuki Takahashi of Japan in the next round and was beaten 3-13.

Tomar had a strong start and opened up a 3-1 lead in the early stages of the opening period. Yuki fought back valiantly but was unable to close down the lead before the break.

In the second period, the Japanese grappler wrestled Tomar to the ground position, took a leg hold and notched up 12 consecutive points by turning him repeatedly. That saw him open up a 13-3 lead and win the bout by technical superiority. 

According to the rules, a wrestler is automatically declared the winner if he takes a lead of 10 or more points.

Tomar however, got a shot at the bronze medal through the repechage rounds as Yuki defeated Vladimir Dubov of Bulgaria in the semi-finals to reach the summit clash against Thomas Gillman of the USA.

Tomar had a superb start in the repechage round as well, outclassing Aso Palani of Canada 10-0 in the first bout. 

But his hopes of a medal were dashed when Bekhbayar Erdenebat of Mongolia defeated him 10-0 in just one minute and 44 seconds. Tomar ultimately had to be satisfied with the seventh position.