World Wrestling Championships: Bajrang Punia and Ravi Dahiya secure Tokyo Olympics berth

Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia secured a spot for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after an impressive 8-1 win over North Korea's Jong Son in the ongoing World Wrestling Championships on Thursday.

Ravi Dahiya also joined Punia with shock victories over his more fancied rivals and entered into the semifinals.

Wrestler @BajrangPunia gets going on the #RoadToTokyo with an easy 9-2 win over Krzysztof Bienkowski of Poland to progress into the 1/8 Finals of the 65kg Freestyle at #WrestleNurSultan pic.twitter.com/y4PIuRlvCY

— Team India (@WeAreTeamIndia) September 19, 2019

The world number one wrestler has now entered the semi-finals of the tournament in the 65 kg weight category. The final bout of this category will be played tomorrow.

Ravi (57kg), in a remarkable turnaround, erased a six-point deficit to log 17 points in a row with his counter-attack to shock Arsen Harutunyan, the 61kg European champion from Armenia.

In the semifinals, Bajrang, who was up against Daulet Niyazbekov of Kazakhstan was down 2-9 and made an amazing comeback to make it 9-9. He, however, lost and will fight for Bronze tomorrow. 

Just in: Bajrang Punia loses in a thriller Semis (FS 65 kg)of World Wrestling Championships.
Was down 2-9; Made an amazing comeback to make it 9-9, but lost eventually.
Bajrang will fight for Bronze tomorrow. #WrestleNurSultan

— India_AllSports (@India_AllSports) September 19, 2019

Ravi will face reigning world champion Zavur Uguev of Russia.

On Wednesday, Vinesh Phogat became the first Indian wrestler to qualify for the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Phogat had booked her place in the 53kg category. She had bagged back-to-back gold medals in the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games.

In the 2018 Asian Games, she had clinched a gold medal in the 50kg category. 

In the women’s competition, Rio Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi lost her opening round 7-10 to Nigeria's Aminat Adeniyi. Sakshi is out of the championship since the Nigerian later lost her quarterfinal bout.

Divya Kakran in the 68kg, could not do much against reigning Olympic champion Sara Dosho from Japan, losing the bout 0-2. 

(Inputs from agencies)