Ankit Gulia, the 19-year-old Greco-Roman wrestler from India, earned bronze in men's 72kg at the Ibrahim Moustafa 2023 in Alexandria, Egypt, on Friday.
Follow Us
Ankit Gulia, the 19-year-old Greco-Roman wrestler from India, earned bronze in men’s 72kg at the Ibrahim Moustafa 2023 in Alexandria, Egypt, on Friday. Ankit Gulia’s bronze medal was India’s first at the ongoing competition. The gold medalist at the U15 Asian Championships in 2019 Gulia was defeated by Georgia’s Otar Abuladze in the first round due to technical superiority by 9-0. Ankit Gulia, though, reached the repechage round and beat Nurzhigit Keneshbek Uulu of Kyrgyzstan on the basis of technical superiority after Otar Abuladze advanced to the final (9-0). In the bronze-medal match, Ankit Gulia was scheduled to face Iran’s Mohammadreza Abdolhamid Geraei, the current Olympic champion. Unfortunately, Geraei opted to withdraw after suffering an injury in one of his previous contests.
Sajan Bhanwala, the former Asian junior champion competing in the Greco-Roman 77kg division, lost his opening round 7-0 to Bulgaria’s Aik Mnatsakanian and moved on to the repechage round. Yunus Emre Basar of Turkey, world No. 3, proved too powerful in the repechage, defeating Sajan Bhanwala 10-0 before taking bronze. In earlier rounds of the competition, Indian wrestlers Ashu (men’s 67kg), who earlier this year earned a bronze medal at the Zagreb Open, and Sunil Kumar (men’s 87kg) advanced through the repechage to the bronze medal matches in their respective events but came without any medals. Manjeet (55 kg), Vikram (60 kg), Nitin (63 kg), Karanjeet (67 kg), Rohit Dahiya (82 kg), Narinder Cheema (97 kg), and Naveen (130 kg) were all unable to get past the opening round in Greco-Roman wrestling.
Read more: India to lose hosting rights for Asian Wrestling Championships 2023
The only Indian to win two matches in women’s freestyle wrestling on Friday was Kiran, a 76kg competitor, and bronze medalist at the Commonwealth Games. She overcame Epp Mae of Estonia 9-1 in the qualification round and Anastasiia Osniach of Ukraine 3-2 in the quarters. Kiran, however, lost 3-1 to China’s Juan Wang, the world No. 7, in the semis before being outwitted 11-0 by Kazakhstan’s Elmira Syzdykova in the bronze medal match. Sito (women’s 57 kg) and Sumitra (women’s 62 kg) lost their first-round matches, but Radhika (women’s 68 kg) advanced to the quarterfinals.
The Ibrahim Moustafa wrestling competition for 2023 began on February 23 and will last until February 26 in Alexandria, Egypt. This is the season’s second-ranking series, with the first contested earlier this month in Zagreb. For the second time in a row, India has fielded a second-string team because notable wrestlers like Bajrang Punia, Ravi Kumar Dahiya, Vinesh Phogat, Deepak Punia, Anshu Malik, Sangeeta Phogat, and Sangita Mor were absent from the competition in Egypt. Aman Sehrawat (men’s 57kg freestyle) who is the U-23 World Champion and Ashu (Greco Roman 67kg) took home the two medals in the first competition of the ranking series.
Read more: 27 Wrestlers to represent India at the ‘Ibrahim-Moustafa’
