Bajrang Punia reaches quarterfinal, Sakshi Malik loses at World Wrestling Championships

Bajrang Punia defeated David Habat of Slovakia 3-0 in the pre-quarters stage to make way into the quarterfinals.

World No. 1 Bajrang Punia pulled off an easy 9-2 win over Poland’s Krzysztof Bienkowski in his opening bout at World Wrestling Championships at Nur-Sultan in Kazakhstan on Thursday. The Indian took a 5-0 lead in the first round of the 65 kg bout. His opponent managed to pick up 2 points after the restart, but it was not enough to pull off a win against the Indian grappler.

Bajrang later defeated David Habat of Slovakia 3-0 in the pre-quarters stage to make way into the quarterfinals. He will earn an Olympic 2020 qualification if he manages to pull off another win in the day. He will also head into the gold medal bout with another win.

In other results, Olympic bronze medal winner Sakshi Malik suffered a 7-10 defeat against Nigeria’s Aminat Adeniyi in Women’s 62 kg category. Malik conceded a 6-0 lead in the first round. She managed to make a comeback in the second round, but it was not enough for her to pull off a comeback win.

Sakshi will now have to pray that Adeniyi manages to reach the final so that she can have a shot at the bronze medal via repechage. Earlier, Divya Kakran also had a difficult opening bout against Olympic champion Sara Dosho of Japan as she lost the bout 0-2 in the 68-kg weight category.

Divya would be hoping that Dosho reaches the final and she can make it to the repechage round. Ravi Kumar also pulled off a 11-0 win over Korea’s Sunggwon Kim via technical superiority in Men’s 57 kg category.

(With agency inputs)