New Delhi: Sajan Bhanwala won India’s first Greco-Roman medal in the U23 World Wrestling Championships as he claimed a bronze medal in Pontevedra, Spain.

The Indian wrestler in the 77 Kg Greco-Roman division beat the Ukrainian Dmytro Vasetskyi in the repechage round to get his hands on the bronze medal with a score of 10-10.

Bhanwala registered a win in his first-round match against Aistis Liagugminas of Lithuania to open his competition. But, he fell 0-8 to Alexandrin Gutu of Moldova, who made it to the final thereby guaranteeing a slot in the repechage round for the Indian.

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First ever medal in Greco-Roman Wrestling

India has never won a medal in the Greco-Roman variant of wrestling at the U23 level with Bhanwala himself coming closest in the 2019 edition.

But, this time Bhanwala ensured that he wouldn’t return empty-handed and came home with a victory over his Ukrainian counterpart.

According to reports, the visas of the athletes were denied on the grounds that they might overstay their welcome. Wrestling Federation of India Chairman Brijbhushan Sharan Singh said it was unfortunate that only nine out of the named 30 had received their visas.

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The Chairman of the WFI, Singh, said that the 21 wrestlers who were denied a visa did have supporting documents from the government and the organizers of the championship.

Singh explained that when a tournament of such big magnitude is assigned to a country, there is a condition that they wouldn’t stop players from any country from participating, including contestants from nations the host has strained relations with.

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