Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Ravi Dahiya crashed to an unexpected early loss against Gulomjon Abdullaev of Uzbekistan at the World Championships in Belgrade on Friday.
World No.2 ranked Dahiya — one of the favourites for the title — went down 10-0 without much of a fight in the pre-quarters of 57kg.
Abdullaev, who has beaten Dahiya before, proved too strong for him yet again. A fast and attacking Abdullaev was straight on the attack and earned two points. Dahiya went for his legs but Abdullaev was quick to wriggle out and added to his tally with a swift counter. He frustrated Dahiya, collecting points in a heap and finished the bout off early in the second period.
Earlier, Dahiya cruised through his qualification round with a 10-0 win over Razvan Marian Kovacs of Romania. With Abdullaev going down in the quarterfinals (13-2) to Zelimkhan Abakarov of Albania, Dahiya was out of the repechage round and will return without a medal.
Dahiya, who won a medal from the 2019 worlds, was in good form this season winning a hat-trick of Asian titles in Ulaanbaatar in a dominating fashion. Last month, he won gold at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and soon left for Russia to prepare for the Worlds. He was India’s biggest hope in Belgrade.
With two days remaining, India have just one medal to show with Vinesh Phogat winning a bronze. All eyes will be on seasoned Bajrang Punia, the two-time world championships medallist who opens his campaign on Saturday to bring some cheer.
Naveen loses bronze bout
Naveen lost his bronze medal bout (70kg) to Ernazar Akmataliev of Kyrgyzstan 4-1. Akmataliev, the Worlds silver medallist, was strong in his defence and Naveen just could not find a way to score after opening the account with a push-out. Earlier, Naveen defeated world No 8 Syrbaz Talgat of Kazakhstan 11-3 and got a walkover from Ilyas Bekbulatov of Uzbekistan to enter the bronze medal bout.
In 74kg, Sagar Jaglan — a world cadet champion – did well to make it to the quarterfinals with technical superiority against Mitchell Louis Finesilver of Israel (15-4) and Diego Antonio Sandoval Zarco of Mexico (13-2). The 18-year-old was, however, handed a lesson by three-time world champion and Tokyo bronze medallist Kyle Dake from the US. Dake lifted Jaglan and slammed him for a five-point throw and then pinned him less than a minute into the bout. Jaglan will be competing in repechage. In 92kg Vicky lost to Radoslaw Marcinkiewicz of Poland 4-3.