Wrestler Ravi Kumar settles for silver at Junior World Championship
Indian Wrestler Ravi Kumar fought through some tough bouts to bag the 55kg freestyle silver medal at the Junior World Championships in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil.
Asian junior champion Ravi opened his tournament on a winning note, defeating American Stevan Micic 12-8 in a tough contest.
Ravi, who was trailing 2-8 against Micic at the break, made a brilliant comeback and rallied with 10 second-period
points to take the match.
Following this win, Ravi qualified for the quarters where he overcame Canadian Samuel Jagas 9-5.
In the semifinal round, Ravi, who was trailing 0-8 at the break, again made an excellent comeback routing Mongolian Zanabazar Zandanbud 9-8 and made it to the final.
However, he lost the final bout to Azerbaijan’s Mahir Amiraslanov 0-10 to settle for a silver medal.
“It feels good to win a silver medal at the end, but that was not the goal of this tournament for me- the goal was to come out with a gold medal,” Ravi said.
“I am happy to win silver medal, but overall I am a little disappointed to lose the finals. But this is not the end, I just need to fine tune everything – more contact on my feet, pushing and pulling at my pace,” he added.
Congratulating Ravi, Wrestling Federation of India President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh said, “I would like to congratulate Ravi Kumar on his well-deserved win. All the hard work and efforts put in prior the tournament helped Ravi perform his best in the Junior World Championship and bring laurels to the country.”
“The entire nation is proud of Ravi and I wish him all the very best for his all future endeavours,” he added.
