Wrestling Worlds: Olympic medallist Ravi Dahiya out of medal contention

India's Olympic silver medallist Ravi Dahiya was out of medal contention in the Wrestling World Championships after losing to Uzbekistan's Gulomjon Abdullaev in the 57kg qualification round in Belgrade on Friday.

However, world under-20 bronze medallist Sagar Jaglan remained in the hunt for a bronze medal in the men's 74kg after entering the repechage.

While Dahiya made an early exit, Naveen entered the bronze medal match after beating World No. 4 Syrbaz Talgat of Uzbekistan in 70kg opening round of repechage 11-3. However, Naveen's campaign ended later in the day as he lost to 2021 World Championship silver medallist Ernazar Akmatalieve of Kyrgyzstan, 1-4.

World No. 2 Dahiya lost by technical superiority (10-0) to the Uzbek in a rather one-sided bout.

In the men's 74kg quarter-final bout, India's Sagar Jaglan lost to three-time world champion winner Kyle Dake of the USA. Vicky lost his first round bout to Poland's Radoslaw Marcinkiewicz 4-3.

World under-20 bronze medallist Jaglan got the better of Israel's Mitchell Finesilver 15-4 and Mexico's Diego Zarco 13-2 before being beaten by Olympic bronze medallist Dake in the quarterfinals.

But as Dake moved into the final, Jaglan stayed in the fray for a bronze medal.

Dahiya, who won the silver at the Tokyo Olympics last year, will not be contesting in repechage for bronze as Abdullaev lost to Albanian wrestler Zelimkhan Abakarov.

On the other hand, Naveen's win took him directly to the bronze medal match as his next-round opponent Ilyas Bekbulatov (Uzbekistan) couldn't compete due to an injury. But the Birmingham Commonwealth Games gold medallist Naveen failed to finish on the podium here.

Dahiya had defeated Razvan Marian Kovacs of Romania by technical superiority (10-0) in the first round 10-0.

It was never going to be an easy outing for Dahiya as he has lost to World No. 30 Abdullaev multiple times in the past.

Even though Abdullaev exacted revenge over Dahiya after his loss in the UWW Ranking Series event (Yasar Dogu 2022) in Istanbul in February, the Uzbek could not go past Abakarov, who won by technical superiority (13-2) to book his semi-final spot.