Rising India wrestler Bajrang narrowly missed out on a third-place finish, going down in the bronze medal play-off round in men’s 61kg Freestyle category even as other Indians continued to disappoint at the World Championship here.
Besides Bajrang two other Indian men — Naresh Kumar (86kg) and Mausam Khatri (97kg) — failed to make it to the medal round. While Sarita wrapped off the female wrestling competition on a dismal note, losing in the qualification round itself.
Arjuna Awardee Bajrang did not have an ideal start as he was beaten by the eventual silver medallist Batbold Nomin of Mongolia 0-10 in the qualification round. But since his Mongolian rival reached the final, Bajrang made it to repechage round, where he won both his bouts to advance to the bronze medal play-off. In his two repechage bouts, he first defeated local grappler Reece Weslee Humphrey 6-0 before getting the better of Beka lomtadze of Georgia 13-6.