World Wrestling C’Ships: Malik in race for Bronze despite loss to Asian Champion Narikuni

Naveen, who won his maiden Commonwealth Games title in 74kg in Birmingham last month, lost to Asian champion Taishi Narikuni of Japan 6-1 in a 70kg first-round bout.

File Photo: Naveen made it to the repechage round when Narikuni booked a place in the final. | Photo Credit: PTI Photo/R Senthil Kumar

Commonwealth Games champion Naveen Malik remained in the race for a bronze medal in the men’s freestyle 70kg category of the World wrestling championships in Belgrade on Thursday.

Naveen, who won his maiden Commonwealth Games title in 74kg in Birmingham last month, lost to Asian champion Taishi Narikuni of Japan 6-1 in a 70kg first-round bout.

Naveen entered the repechage round when the Japanese reached the final.

Deepak (79kg) beat Israel's Dan Tsesarsky 10-0 but lost to Uzbek Bekzod Abdurakhmonov 13-2. Sanjeet Kundu (86kg) was beaten by Georgia's Tarzan Maisuradze 4-4 on criteria.

Dinesh (125kg) defeated Argentina's Catriel Puriel 11-4 before being pinned by Olympic silver medallist Georgian Geno Petriashvili.

Nisha Dahiya (women’s 68kg) was pinned by Commonwealth Games silver medallist Canadian Linda Morais, a former World champion in 59kg, after leading 4-0 at one.