Rahul Aware wins bronze in World Wrestling Championships

Nur-Sultan: Wrestler Rahul Aware on Sunday won the bronze medal in the World Wrestling Championships.

He 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.

"A stunning performance by #RahulAware beating Tyler Graff 11-4 to win the men's 61 kg bronze at World #Wrestling C'ships. With 5 medals (1 silver & 4 bronze), this is India's best showing ever at C'ships. Congrats to winners & best wishes for coming Oly. quota events," SAI Media tweeted.

On Sunday, Deepak Punia pulled out of the finals of the tournament due to an injury and had to settle with a bronze medal in the competition.

India finished the tournament with four bronze medals and one silver medal.

Commonwealth Games gold medalist Aware had defeated Rassul Kaliyev in the World Wrestling Championships to reach semi-finals on Saturday.

Rahul defeated the former Asian Champion 10-7.

On Friday, 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 also won a bronze medal on Friday 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 on Thursday after an impressive 8-1 win over North Korea's Jong Son in the tournament.

On Wednesday, 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.