World Wrestling Championship: Deepak Punia ruled out due to elbow injury, Sanjeet to replace him

Deepak Punia, the Worlds silver medalist, has been ruled out of the World Wrestling Championships in Belgrade owing to an elbow injury.

He fractured his hand while practicing in Michigan, USA, and the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) held a trial and chose Sanjeet to replace the Olympian in the 86kg freestyle class, according to WFI assistant secretary Vinod Tomar.

Punia had a strong junior season. In 2019, he won gold at the World Junior Wrestling Championship in Tallinn, Estonia. The 23-year-old from Haryana’s Chhara village won gold in the 2018 Asian Junior Championship in New Delhi and also finished first in the 2016 World Cadet Championship.

Are you ready for the World Championships? We are off in Belgrade.

Here’s the bout order for the morning session with four Greco-Roman weight classes.

Watch Live: https://t.co/W8tTrkOIVX pic.twitter.com/EkcVA1v6Fk

— United World Wrestling (@wrestling) September 10, 2022

Meanwhile, the World Wrestling Championship has begun in Belgrade. More than 800 wrestlers from around the world, both men and women, will compete in the Greco Roman and Freestyle categories. The Indian squad, sponsored by Tata Motors, earned silver and bronze medals at the 2021 World Championship in Oslo and will undoubtedly try to improve  their performance:

10 September – Greco Roman – Who is in action today?

• Qualification rounds & Semifinals for  55-72-77-87kg
• Arjun Halakurki (55kg)
• Vikas (72kg), Sachin (77kg),
• Harpreet Singh (82kg),
• Sunil Kumar (87kg)