Vishal in hunt for bronze in U20 World Wrestling

Smaokov (Bulgaria), Aug 17 (PTI) Freestyle wrestler Vishal will fight for the bronze medal after losing his 97kg freestyle semifinal bout to UWW grappler Magomedgadzhi Magomedov on the opening day of the U20 World Championships, here on Sunday.

The 20-year-old Indian lost the closely-fought semifinal 9-11 and will now take on a yet-to-be-confirmed grappler in the bronze-medal bout.

Vishal gave his opponent a tough fight and had the grappler, who was fighting under the United World Wrestling (UWW) flag, in all sorts of trouble before Magomedov managed to eke out a narrow win.

Magomedov led 10-4 when Vishal mounted a comeback. The Indian scored a takedown and Magomedov was cautioned for a singlet foul, which made it 10-7.

As the bout restarted, India appealed for two more points but the referee had already blown the whistle before the control from Vishal. That challenge gave Magomedov enough time to recover and hang on to a slender lead.

Earlier in the quarterfinal, Vishal's opponent, Japan's Noah Leibowitz, pulled out due to injury when the Indian was leading 12-9.

Sagar (70kg) and Jaspooran (125kg) lost their opening-round bouts to Iran's Ebrahim Esmaeil and UWW's Inal Gagloev respectively.

Parvinder Singh (74kg) lost in his quarterfinal bout to Italy's Raul Caso 4-5 on points. PTI AM AM ATK