Manjeet wins bronze in UWW ranking series wrestling event in Kyrgyzstan

Manjeet lost to Ikhtiyor Botirov of Uzbekistan in the quarterfinals with the latter notching up victory by superiority (VSU1, 13-4).

FILE PHOTO: Services’ Manjeet (in blue ) grabs L. Sayon of Manipur to win the 55kg GR gold medal match during the National wrestling championships at Port Stadium in Visakhapatnam on December 22, 2022.  | Photo Credit: DEEPAK KR

Manjeet won a bronze in the men’s Greco Roman 55kg category to open India’s medal account in the UWW Ranking Series wrestling event here on Thursday.

Manjeet lost to Ikhtiyor Botirov of Uzbekistan in the quarterfinals with the latter notching up victory by superiority (VSU1, 13-4). But, since Botirov reached the final, Manjeet got a chance to fight for one of the two bronze medals.

The Indian beat Yersin Abyir of Kazakhstan 14-9 via VPO1 (winner with no technical superiority but the loser scores atleast 1 point) to grab a bronze on the opening day of competitions.

Kazakhstan’s Marlan Mukashev beat Botirov in the gold medal bout.

In 60kg, Sumit reached the repechage round where he lost to Balbai Dordokov of Kyrgyzstan. He had earlier lost to Nursultan Bazarbayev of Kazakhstan in the quarterfinals.

Neeraj also lost in the repechage round in the 67kg class.

Three other Indian wrestlers -- Sunil Kumar (87kg), Narinder Cheema (97kg) and Sahil (130kg) -- lost in the qualification stage.