Olympic bronze medallist Sushil Kumar failed to replicate boxer Vijender Singh’s feat and lost out on a medal opportunity in the World Wrestling Championship after losing the bronze medal playoff in the 66kg freestyle category in Herning, Denmark.
Sushil was no match for his Japanese opponent Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu, losing 0-5 in the repechage.
Earlier, Sushil, who got a opening round bye, beat Pietro Piscitelli of Italy 7-0 in the second round and then went on to stun top-ranked Stefan Daniliuc of Romania 5-2 in the pre-quarterfinals.
The diminutive Delhi wrestler’s next casualty was Jabrayil Hasanov of Azerbaijan, whom he defeated on the basis of technical points to reach the semifinals, according to the information received here.
Sushil, who won the German Grand Prix this year, however lost to 13th ranked Russian Rasul Djukaev 2-8 in the last four stage, thereby ending his chances of bagging a gold.
Soon after Vijender won a bronze at the World Boxing Championships, Sushil had stated that he wanted to better the Bhiwani boxer’s triumph.
Meanwhile, India’s Balraj Singh was humiliated 1-10 by Hyo-Sub Kim of Korea in the first round of the 55 kg freestyle category, while Anil Kumar Mann bowed out in the second round of the 96 kg division, losing 2-3 to Saleh Moustafa Saelh of Egypt in a close encounter.
Mann had earlier defeated Chinese Jiayu Gao 3-0 in the opening round.
There was further bad news for India in the freestyle category as Joginder Kumar lost 2-6 to Bartlomiej Bartnicki of Poland in the first round.
