Nur-Sultan (Kazakhstan), September 19: Sakshi Malik lost in 1st round (62 kg) of World Wrestling Championships to Nigerian grappler Aminat Oluwafunmilayo Adeniyi 7-10.
On Thursday, she was slow to get off the blocks and conceded a 6-0 lead before scoring her first take down. She did fight back in the second round but the gap was too big to fill as she lost 7-10 and will have to pray that Adeniyi manages to reach the final.
Sakshi however isn’t out of the tournament yet. If Aminat Oluwafunmilayo Adeniyi reaches the gold medal match then Sakshi has a shot at the Bronze medal through the Repechage rounds.
However, the freestyle men have started strong at the World Championships with Ravi Kumar also now winning his opening bout.
Seeded 25th, Ravi was fighting Kim Sunggwon of Korea and the Indian sealed the victory with a 11-4 scoreline in just 2 minutes and 59 seconds.
Earlier in the day, World No.1 Bajrang Punia kicked off his campaign with a 9-2 win over Poland’s Krzysztof Bienkowski. He opened up a 5-0 lead in the first round after Bienkowski challenged a call and it was rejected. The Polish grappler got 2 points immediately after the restart but Bajrang was never to be denied.
