Ravinder reaches final of U-23 World Wrestling Championship

Ravinder put up a rousing display to beat senior European champion Arsen Harutyunan and storm into the final of the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships.

Ravinder will be aiming for his career's biggest prize when he takes on Kyrgyzstan’s Ulukbek Zholdoshbekov in Wednesday's final.

Ravinder confirmed India’s first medal at the UWW Under-23 World Championships as he progressed to the final in the 61kg category on Tuesday. The 22-year-old put up a commanding display to pin senior European champion Arsen Harutyunan of Armenia to storm into the final with a 4-3 win.

Earlier, he had notched up a 12-1 win over Hungary’s Marcell Budai Kovacs in his opening bout and then followed it up with an 11-0 win over 2019 Russian National Freestyle Wrestling Championships bronze medallist Dinislam Takhtarov in the quarterfinals.

The Sonipat grappler, who won gold at the South Asian Games in 2016 and also a bronze at the Cadet Asian Championships in 2014, will be aiming for his career's biggest prize when he takes on Kyrgyzstan’s Ulukbek Zholdoshbekov in the summit showdown that is scheduled to take place at 10:30pm IST on Wednesday.

Gaurav Baliyan will get another chance to clinch a medal in the 74kg category after he made it to repechage, where he faces USA’s Brady Gary Berge at 3pm IST.

The women will also begin their challenge on Wednesday. In the 50kg category, 10th seeded Jyoti will take on Yafremenka of Belarus, while Pooja Yadav has a tough opener in 59kg as she faces the top seed Kennett of Canada.

Rani Rana in 55kg and Suman in 68kg will start their campaign from the qualifiers. While the former takes on USA’s Parrish, the latter has China’s Wang in her opening bout.

The seven-day UWW U-23 World Championships 2019 is being streamed live on  www.wrestlingtv.in .