Sushil Kumar loses in opening round of World Wrestling Championships

Kumar, who is a two-time Olympic medallist, suffered an 11-9 defeat against Gadzhiyev.

Nur-Sultan (Kazakhastan): Star Indian grappler Sushil Kumar lost his first-round bout against Azerbaijan's Khadzhimurad Gadzhiyev 9-11 in the 74-kg freestyle category at the ongoing World Wrestling Championships here on Friday.

• In the opening period, Sushil managed to send Gadzhiyev off the mat and took a lead of 8-2. However, Gadzhiyev fought back to cut Sushil's lead to 9-6.
• Gadzhiyev then made a fine comeback and managed to push Sushil off the mat to take a 10-8 lead and then won a bonus point to emerge victorious with a scoreline of 11-9.

Earlier, Karan Mor and Sumit Malik also failed to advance as they lost their respective first-round bouts in 70 kg and 125 kg category, respectively.

While Karan lost 0-7 to Ikhtiyor Navruzov of Uzbekistan, Sumit, the reigning Commonwealth Games gold medallist, lost 0-2 to two-time European Championships medallist Daniel Ligeti of Hungary.

Parveen Rana was the only Indian to advance to the second round as he defeated Korea's Sue Changjae 12-1 in the 92 kg category.

Sushil, Karan and Sumit can now book Olympic berths only if the winners of their first-round clashes reach the final in their respective categories. They will then get a shot in the repechage round.