New Delhi:
India started off their campaign at the Junior World Wrestling championships on a winning note as Veer Dev Gulia bagged a bronze medal on the opening day of the competition in Tampere, Finland.
In the men's 74kg freestyle, Gulia finished third on the podium after getting the better of Yamasaki Yajuro of Japan 8 -5 in the bronze medal play-off bout last night.
Gulia had made it to the bronze medal play-offs despite losing in the quarterfinals, as his last-eight stage opponent, Isa Shapiev of Uzbekistan, reached the gold medal round of 74kg.
Gulia had started well by beating Johann Christoph Steinforth of Germany 6-2 in the 1/8 stage, but he lost in the quarterfinals 0-11 to the Uzbek wrestler.
But, with Shapiev entering the gold medal round, Gulia got another chance and he took full advantage of it, defeating Ty Stuart Bridgwater of Canada 5-0 in his repechage bout.
However, another Indian Ravinder, who also made it to the bronze medal round in men's 60kg freestyle, lost out on a third-place finish after going down to Japan's Hiromu Sakaki 6-9.
