The 2022 World Junior Wrestling Championships (U20) is the 45th edition of the World Junior U20 Wrestling Championships and is held in Sofia, Bulgaria. This championship began on 15th of August, Monday and will end on 21st of August. India started their campaign at the ongoing U20 Wrestling World Championships by clinching 4 bronze medals on the very first day of the tournament beginning in Sofia, Bulgaria meanwhile Mahendra Babasaheb Gaikwad entered into the final of the men’s 125kg weight division on Tuesday. All the four medals for India on the first day were bronze and were won by men’s freestyle wrestlers whereas Mahendra Babasaheb Gaikwad settled for a silver medal on Wednesday, 17th August.
Sujeet defeated Ukraine’s Mykyta Zubal in the men’s 65kg weight division by technical superiority to clinch the bronze medal on Monday. He won all the three bouts up to the quarter-finals but lost to Ziraddin Bayramov of Azerbaijan 6-2 in the semifinals.
In the 70kg category, Mulayam Yadav lost to Kanan Heybatov of Azerbaijan in the semis. He made an impressive comeback to clinch a bronze medal by defeating Georgia’s Gigi Kurkhuli via technical superiority on Monday, 15th August.
In the 57kg wrestling bracket, Abhishek Dhaka lost his quarter-final bout to Merey Bazarbayev of Kazakhstan by 5-1 but fought through the repechage round to clinch the bronze medal for the country.
Niraj, fighting in the 97kg category, lost by 8-1 to eventual gold medallist Benjamin Allen Kueter of the USA in the semis. Niraj, however, dominated Luka Khutchua of Georgia to clinch the bronze medal play-off 18-10.
Deepak (79kg) and Jointy Kumar (85kg) were out of the qualification rounds while Akash (92kg) lost in the round of 16.
Mahendra Babasaheb Gaikwad, meanwhile, took on Iran’s Amirreza Fardin Masoumi Valadi in the 125kg gold medal bout on Wednesday but settled for silver. Mahendra Babasaheb Gaikwad faced a strong challenge from Adil Misirci of Turkey in the quarter-finals but managed to win the bout 6-4 to progress into the next round. Mahendra Babasaheb Gaikwad then blanked Uzbekistan’s Namoz Abdurashidov 6-0 to ensure at least a silver for India.
Mohit Kumar (61kg) and Sagar Jaglan (74kg) also won a bronze each on Wednesday to take India’s medals tally at the World U20 Wrestling Championships to the next level.
Cadet world champion wrestler Priya won the women’s 76kg silver medal at the World U20 Wrestling Championships 2022 in Sofia, Bulgaria on Thursday, 18 August. Earlier, Priya defeated Kazakhstan’s Alina Yertostik by fall and then scored a 6-4 win over Melisa Saritac of Turkey in the quarter-finals rounds. She made it to the final with a narrow 6-5 win over the U20 European champion Veronika Nyikos of Hungary in the semifinals.
Apart from Priya’s silver, Priyanshi Prajapat (women’s 50kg) also won bronze on Thursday to take India’s medals tally to a height of nine, which includes two silvers and seven bronze medals. It was Priyanshi Prajapat’s first ever medal on the world stage.
