Vishvajit More in bronze medal contention, three other Greco-Roman wrestlers lose in opening round

Novi Sad (Serbia), Oct 21 (PTI) Vishvajit More brought cheers to the Indian camp by staying alive in the medal race of the 55kg Greco-Roman category, but three of his compatriots lost their respective first-round bouts at the U-23 World Championships here on Tuesday.

More began with a 6-2 win over Denis Florin Mihai from Kyrgyzstan and followed that up with a commanding technical superiority (9-1) win over American Kenneth Andrew Crosby to reach the quarterfinals.

However, he lost his quarterfinal by technical superiority to Alibek Amirov, who later reached the final to open the repechage route for More.

Amirov is playing under UWW flag.

Other Indians in action -- Nishant (67kg), Anil (72kg) and Naman (97kg) -- suffered first-round defeats and were knocked out of the tournament.

Nishant lost 3-8 to Ajerbaijan's Faraim Mustafayev, while Anil was outplayed 1-6 by Aremenia's Gaspar Terteryan.

Naman lost his qualification bout by technical superiority to Armenia's Arshak Geghamyan.

Gaurav (63kg), Ankit (77kg), Rohit Bura (87kg) and Joginder Rathee (130kg) also made a first-round exit in Greco-Roman style competition after losing their opening rounds on Monday. PTI AT AT ATK