Wrestling Trials / Bajrang Punia-Ravi Dahiya out of Paris Olympics race, lost badly in trials

Wrestling Trials: Tokyo Olympic Games medal winners Bajrang Punia and Ravi Dahiya have suffered a big setback. Both these wrestlers are out of the race for Paris Olympic qualification after losing their matches in the selection trials for the upcoming international tournament on Sunday. Due to which the dream of both the players of participating in Paris Olympics has been shattered.

Bajrang Punia got a crushing defeat

Punia, who led the protests against former Wrestling Federation of India president Brijbhushan Sharan Singh, lost 1-9 to Rohit Kumar in the men's freestyle 65kg semi-final. Earlier, he had barely managed to register a win against Ravinder. If Ravinder had not lost the point due to warning in the match, Punia would have been out in the very first match. After losing in the semi-finals, Punia immediately left the Sports Authority of India (SAI) center in anger. National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) officials tried to collect dope samples from Punia but he did not even stay for the third-fourth place competition.

Aman Sehrawat defeated Ravi Dahiya

Men's 57kg (in Nordic format) has always been a tough category with Tokyo Olympics silver medalists Ravi Dahiya and Aman Sehrawat in the running. Dahiya, who was returning from injury, lost to Aman 13-14 in the first high-scoring match. Both train at Chhatrasal Stadium. When Dahiya was not competing, Aman was in the news by winning medals in almost all the tournaments in 2023. Asian Games bronze medalist Aman won the match by ending Dahiya's dominance in the last minute. Dahiya lost to U-20 Asian champion Udit in the next match. The winners of the trials will get a chance to compete in the Asian and World Olympic Qualifiers. India has so far secured a quota for the Paris Olympics only through the final Panghal (women's 53 kg).