Tashkent, Sept 9: Indian grapplers continued their weak showing in the ongoing World Wrestling Championships after Naresh Kumar lost his 86 kg repechage match against Japan’s Atsushi Matsumoto on the second day of the event, here today.
Naresh, who made his presence felt by winning a silver in the Commonwealth Championships in 2013, had lost to Reineris Salas of Cuba 1-3 in the first round of the men’s 86kg freestyle yesterday.
In the 61kg freestyle, India’s Rahul Mann lost to Yowlys Bonne of Cuba 0-4 in the first round match of the main draw.
Asian Championship gold medallist Amit Dhankhar also went down to Azamat Nurykau of Belarus in the opening round of the 65 kg main draw.
On the opening day, Indian grapplers failed to make a mark on the mat after Rajiv Tomar crashed out of 125 kg the qualifying round while Arun also met with the same fate as he had lost in the qualifying round against Cleopas Ncube of Canada 0-4 in 70kg freestyle.
Rahul Balasaheb Aware gave the country hope after beating Peker Ahmet of Turkey 4-0 in the qualifying round but lost his first round bout of the main event 1-3 to Bekhbayar Erdenebat of Mongolia in the 57kg freestyle yesterday evening itself.
India, however, were fielding a second-string team in view of the upcoming Asian Games. 2008 and 2012 Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar also decided to skip the World Championships in order to focus for 2016 Rio Olympics. (PTI)
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