World Wrestling Championships 2025: Suraj loses quarterfinal bout; Nitesh advances to repechage round

Young Suraj Vashishth gave a good account of himself on his senior World Championships debut, making the 60kg quarterfinals before bowing out, while Aman suffered an early exit from the tournament here on Friday.

When other Greco-Roman wrestlers have struggled to make one scoring move, the U20 World Championships bronze winner and U20 Asian champion won two bouts, giving something to cheer about to the coaching staff.

Suraj won 3-1 against Angel Tellez and followed that up with a 3-1 win over Moldova’s Victor Ciobanu. However, he lost his quarterfinal 1-4 against Serbia’s Georgij Tibilov.

The 19-year-old from Rohtak had ended India’s six-year-long wait for a gold at the international level when he won the U20 Asian title in Bishkek in July this year. More experience and exposure at the senior level should help him improve.

He has already won a silver at the senior level at the Mongolia Open, apart from winning a bronze at the Yasar Dogu.

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Competing in 72kg, Ankit Gulia lost his qualification bout 0-9 by technical superiority to Korean Yeonghun Noh, who later lost his quarterfinal to spell the ouster of the Indian.

In 97kg, Nitesh began with a close 3-2 win over Croatia’s Filip Smetko but lost 0-4 to world No. 1 Mohammadhadi Saravi from Iran in the pre-quarterfinals. Consequently, the Indian progressed to the repechage round.

Aman lost his 77kg repechage round 0-10 by technical superiority to Ukraine’s Ihor Bychkov.

India’s lone medal in the ongoing edition of the championships came through Antim Panghal, who won a bronze in women’s 53kg on Thursday.

(with inputs from PTI)

Published on Sep 19, 2025