World Wrestling Championships: Bajrang Punia suffers defeat in quarterfinals

Olympic bronze medallist Bajrang Punia (65kg) on Saturday suffered a shock quarterfinals defeat and was out of gold medal contention while Sagar Jaglan will grapple for bronze in the 74kg event at the Wrestling World Championships. Punia's loss came a day after the another shock defeat of Ravi Dahiya in Belgrade. Punia lost 0-10 to USA's John Diakomihalis via technical superiority. However, he still has a slim change of winning a medal in the repechage round if Diakomihalis manages to reach the final.

The Commonwealth games gold medallist was one of India's biggest medal hopes after the defeat of Dahiya in the second round.

Diakomihalis led 4-0 over Punia after the first round and then scored one point after another in the second round to eventually win 10-0. The American won with more than a minute remaining on the clock. Earlier, the Indian wrestler had defeated Cuba's Alejandro Enrique Valdes Tobier on points (5-4) in the pre quarterfinals.

On the other hand, Indian wrestler Sagar Jaglan defeated Suldkhuu Olonbayar of Mangolia 7-3 in the 74kg wrestling category and will now face Yones Aliakbar Emamichoghaei of Iran in the bronze medal match later in the day.

Vinesh Phogat who scripted history by becoming the first Indian woman to win two World Wrestling Championships medal, remains the only winner from India in this edition of the tournament so far.

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