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India's 19-year-old Greco-Roman wrestler Ankit Gulia clinched a bronze medal in the men's 72 kg category in the Ibrahim Moustafa 2023 wrestling ranking series in Alexandria, Egpyt.
On Friday, Ankit gave India their first medal at the ongoing tournament. Gulia, a U15 Asian Champion in 2019, lost his opening round bout to Georgia's Otar Abuladze by 9-0 via technical superiority, as per Olympics.com. Abuladze made it to the final and Gulia made it to the repechage round and defeated Kyrgyzstan's Nurzhigit Keneshbek Uulu by 9-0 on basis of technical superiority. Ankit was supposed to compete against the reigning Olympic champion Mohammadreza Abdolhamid Geraei from Iran in the bronze medal bout, but Geraei pulled out of the match because of an injury he sustained in one of his earlier matches. In the Greco-Roman 77 kg event, India's Sajan Bhanwala, former Asian Junior Champion, entered the repechage round after losing to Bulgaria's Aik Mnatsakanian by 7-0 in his opening bout. But he succumbed to the world number 3, Turkey's Yunus Emre Basar by 10-0 in his repechage match. Yunus went on to win the bronze medal. Earlier in the tournament, Indian wrestlers Ashu (men's 67 kg), a Zagreb Open bronze medalist earlier this year and Sunil Kumar (men's 87 kg) made it to bronze medal bouts via repechage rounds but failed to clinch the prize. Greco-Roman wrestlers Manjeet (55kg), Vikram Kurade (60kg), Nitin (63kg), Karanjeet (67kg), Rohit Dahiya (82kg), Narinder Cheema (97kg) and Naveen (130kg) made an early exit after the first round. In women's freestyle wrestling, Kiran, a Commonwealth Games bronze medalist competing in the 76 kg category, was the only one from India to win two bouts on Friday, defeating Epp Mae of Estonia 9-1 in the qualification round, then downing Ukraine's Anastasiia Osniach by 3-2 in quarter-finals. But she lost to China's Juan Wang, the world number 7 in the semifinal by 3-1 and endured a huge 11-0 loss to Kazakhstan's Elmira Syzdykova in the bronze medal match. Radhika (women's 68kg) made it to the quarter-finals but Sito (women's 57kg) and Sumitra (women's 62kg) failed to go past the opening round. The Ibrahim Moustafa 2023 wrestling ranking series will conclude on February 26. (ANI)
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