India ends Bishkek Ranking Series with four medals, Ravi Dahiya hurts knee during warm-up

Bishkek [Kyrgyzstan], June 5 : At the Bishkek Ranking Series 2023 in Kyrgyzstan, the Indian wrestling team finished their competition with four medalsone gold, one silver, and two bronze, as per Olympics.com.

On the last day of the competition on Sunday, India was unable to take home any gold in the men's freestyle category. Ravi Kumar Dahiya, who won silver at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, had to withdraw after hurting his knee during warm-up prior to the 61kg category's initial battle. Ravi Kumar Dahiya was slated to compete for the first time this year in the Bishkek meet.

The competition took place from June 1 to June 4.

Manisha, a women's 65kg competitor and 2023 Asian Championships bronze medalist, won India's lone gold medal at the competition, while Reetika, a women's 72kg competitor, settled for silver.

Sarita Mor, a former Asian champion and 2021 world championship bronze medalist, won the women's 59kg division. Manjeet (55 kg) of the Greco-Roman wrestling team took home bronze on the first day of the competition.

On Sunday, Pankaj and Aman Sehrawat fought in the men's 61kg quarterfinals. Pankaj defeated the senior Asian champion and the current U23 world champion by a score of 8-2.

However, Pankaj was on the losing side of his semi-final to the eventual gold medallist Taiyrbek Zhumashbek Uulu of Kyrgyzstan 7-0 and the bronze medal playoff to Emrah Ormanoglu of Turkey 6-1.

Mulayam Yadav in the 70kg division was the only other Indian wrestler to get to the bronze medal match on Sunday. He qualified by defeating Doszhan Asetov of Kazakhstan 9-4 before defeating Davit Patsinashvili of Georgia 6-2.

The eventual gold medalist Orozobek Toktomambetov of Kyrgyzstan interrupted Mulayam Yadav's winning streak in the semifinal with a win by 7-1.

Mulayam Yadav lost against Servet Coskun of Turkey in the bronze medal playoff after the scores were tied 6-6.

The Asian championship silver medalist Nisha Dahiya (women's 68kg) and Olympians Sonam Malik (women's 62kg) and Deepak Punia (men's 86kg), the defending Commonwealth Games champion, could not advance to the medal rounds.

Budapest, Hungary will host the fourth and final wrestling ranking series of the year from July 13 to July 16. Wrestlers can get valuable ranking points in these ranking series events, which can help them advance to higher seeds in important contests.