Corsier-sur-Vevey (Switzerland): Deepak Punia, who recently won a silver medal in the World Wrestling Championships has risen to the number one ranking in the 86-kg category as the international federation for wrestling (United World Wrestling) released latest rankings on Friday.
The 20-year-old Deepak now has 82 points and he has a four-point lead over Iran’s Hassan Aliazam Yazdanicharati.
Meanwhile, Bajrang Punia has lost his number one ranking in the 65-kg category. Russia’s Gadzhimurad Rashidov is now the number one ranked wrestler in the category and has a 9-point lead over the Indian.
In the 57-kg category, Ravi Kumar has entered the top-five. He is ranked at the fifth position with 39 points while Rahul Aware’s bronze medal has pushed him to world number two in the 61-kg category.
In the World Wrestling Championships, Vinesh Phogat, Ravi Kumar, Bajrang Punia and Rahul Aware ended up as bronze medallists whereas Deepak Punia won a silver medal.
Aware defeated USA’s Tyler Lee Graff 11-4 in the 61-kg weight category to win the medal. However, this was not an Olympic category and as a result, the wrestler has not qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
22-year-old debutant Ravi Kumar won a bronze medal in the World Wrestling Championships.
Kumar had defeated Reza Atrinagharchi of Iran 6-3 to clinch the medal in the 57 kg weight category.
Bajrang Punia won a bronze medal in the championship, defeating Tulga Tumur Ochir of Mongolia 8-7 in the 65 kg weight category.
Punia had secured a spot for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after an impressive 8-1 win over North Korea’s Jong Son in the tournament.
Vinesh Phogat became the first Indian wrestler to qualify for the Olympics and she would be competing in the 53 kg category. She had bagged gold medals in the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games.
In the 2018 Asian Games, she had clinched a gold medal in the 50 kg category. (ANI)
