Sajan Bhanwal becomes first Indian to win back-to-back medals at Junior World Wrestling Championship

By PTI NewsFirst Published Sep 19, 2018, 3:54 PM IST
Highlights

With Sajan Bhanwal down, Opiev went to work, scoring six additional points from a pair of back-arches, followed by a feet over back exposure to take the 7-0 lead

New Delhi: India’s Sajan Bhanwal scripted history at the Junior World Wrestling Championship after he secured a silver in the 77kg Greco Roman category in Trnava, Slovakia.

Islam Opiev of Russia proved to be too good for the 20-year-old from a village near Sonipat, winning the bout through technical superiority. The scoreline was 8-0.

Bhanwal is the first Indian to win successive medals at junior world event. He had also won a bronze in the 2017 World Junior Championship at Tampere, Finland.

In the opening 90 seconds, Sajan was hit with passivity and was thrown from the par terre position, official website of United World Wrestling reported.

With Sajan down, Opiev went to work, scoring six additional points from a pair of back-arches, followed by a feet over back exposure to take the 7-0 lead.

The action was blown dead, and both wrestlers were brought up to their feet. In the standing position, Opeiv charged Sajan near the edge of the mat and picked up the match-ending eighth point, and the 77kg gold medal, the report added. In the quarter-finals, he had beaten Norway's Per Anders Kure.

The Haryana wrestler, who had won the gold at Junior Asia Championship in July, had defeated Dmytro Gardubei from Ukraine in the semi-finals.

Another Indian, Vijay, had earlier bagged the bronze medal in the 55kg greco-roman category defeating Cihat Ahmet Liman of Turkey 16-8.

Read Exclusive COVID-19 Coronavirus News updates, at MyNation.

click me!