Bajrang Punia and Ravi Dahiya out of Paris Olympic qualifiers

Tokyo Olympic Games medalist wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Ravi Dahiya's dream of participating in the Paris Olympics 2024 was shattered. Both the wrestlers faced defeat in the trials organized by the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) on Sunday. With this, both the wrestlers were out of the race for a place in the Paris Olympic Qualifier team.

Bajrang, who won a bronze medal in Tokyo, appeared in the trials held at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre but lost to Rohit Kumar in the men's 65kg freestyle event. In the semi-finals of the trials, Bajrang looked helpless against Rohit and lost by a huge margin of 1-9.

At the same time, Ravi Kumar Dahiya, who won the silver medal in the Tokyo Olympics, was defeated 10-8 by Haryana wrestler Udit in the 57 kg category. Ravi recently returned to the mat after recovering from an injury. However, Udit faced defeat in the final at the hands of Under-23 World Champion Aman Sehrawat.

Bajrang and Ravi Dahiya now cannot make it to the Paris Olympics. The Indian Wrestling Federation has already made it clear that only the wrestlers who win the trials will be selected as the team for the Paris Olympic Qualifiers.

Wrestlers got victory in the trial:

1. Aman Sehrawat 57 kg category
2. Sujit Kalkal 65kg category
3. Jagdeep 74kg category
4. Deepak Punia 86kg category
5. Deepak Nehra 97 kg category
6. Sumit Malik 125kg category