India finish campaign with 2 silver at U-23 WWC

Indias hopes of adding a final medal on the last day were dashed when Ravi Rathi was blanked 0-8 by Belaruss Dzmitry Kaminski in the bronze medal play-off of the 97kg Greco-Roman category at the UWW Under-23 World Championships 2019 in Budapest, Hungary.

Ravi had emerged victorious in the repechage bout earlier in the day when he edged Uzur Dzhuzupbekov of Kyrgyzstan 3-1.

With this, India's campaign at the U-23 World Wrestling Championships came to an end with a haul of two silver medals brought by Ravinder in the 61kg men's freestyle and Pooja Gehlot in the 53kg women's wrestling.

India earned its best position in men's freestyle team rankings, where 48 points gave the contingent an 11th place finish. While it finished at 12th in women's wrestling, in Greco-Roman India ended at the 15th spot.

This edition also saw an improvement from 2018 where India won a solitary silver medal through Ravi Kumar Dahiya. Also of note was the fact that nine wrestlers made it to the quarter-finals with three each in freestyle, Greco-Roman and women's wrestling. India's best performance in this competition, however, still remains in the inaugural edition in 2017 when Bajrang Punia, Vinod Kumar Omprakash and Ritu Phogat each won silver medals.

The entire action from the seven-day UWW U-23 World Championships 2019 was streamed live and exclusive on www.wrestlingtv.in, India's one-stop destination for wrestling news, which made sure that wrestling lovers don't miss out on any of the action.

"Winning the silver medal at the U-23 World Championships especially after a comeback from injury is a huge boost to my confidence and it will motivate me further to bring laurels for the country in future events. I am also grateful to WrestlingTV for their uninterrupted coverage which allowed my family back home to watch me fight for the medal live," said silver medallist Pooja Gehlot.

WrestlingTV will next show the upcoming Tata Motors National Championship to be held from November 28 at Jalandhar, Punjab.

( With inputs from IANS )