Bajrang Punia becomes first Indian to be seeded in Wrestling World Championships
New Delhi, Oct 11: CWG and Asian Games gold medallist Bajrang Punia is the only Indian wrestler from a strong 30-member squad to get a seeding at the upcoming World Championships as he has been seeded third in the 65kg category in men's freestyle competition.
Going by his form, Bajrang will be a strong medal contender at the World Wrestling Championships, scheduled to held in Budapest, Hungary, from October 20 to 28.
The United World Wrestling (UWW) has introduced the ranking-points based seeding system for the first time for the World Championships. Bajrang has 45 points in the ranking list released by the world body.
In the past, wrestlers were pulled into the brackets via a random draw of lots.
Recent ranking tournaments such as Tbilisi Grand Prix in Georgia and Yasar Dogu International in Istanbul have been used to determine the ranking points for the World Championship.
Turkey's Selahattin Kilicsallayan is the top seed (50 points) in the 65kg while Ilias Bekbulatov from Russia is second and Haji Aliyev from Azerbaijan is fourth.
Bajrang won a bronze at the 2013 World Championship and is aiming for the top prize.
"I had come here early to get acclimatized to conditions and am fully focused. I hope I can live up to everybody's expectations and return home with a gold medal," Bajrang said.
The 24-year-old has been training at the M trah za Olympic Training Center for the past two weeks, reaching Hungary before other team members arrived on Wednesday.
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I am back home: All England missed, Sindhu lands back in Bengaluru from Dubai
Bengaluru (PTI): Two-time Olympic medal-winning Indian badminton star P V Sindhu, who was stranded in Dubai due to closure of airspace in the Gulf region, has returned to the country after pulling out of the All England Championships in Birmingham.
Sindhu posted on X to announce that she is back in the city.
"Back home in Bangalore and safe. The last few days have been intense and uncertain, but I'm truly grateful to be back to my house," she posted.
"A heartfelt thank you to the incredible ground teams, Dubai authorities, airport staff, immigration, and every single person who stepped up and took such good care of us during a very difficult time. The empathy and professionalism meant more than words can say.
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"For now, it's time to rest, reset, and figure out the next steps," she added.
The former world champion was on her way to Birmingham via Dubai, when she was stranded after the flight operations were suspended in the Gulf region following the US and Israeli bombing of Iran.
Iran subsequently retaliated, hitting Dubai as well.
"Moments like these remind you how fragile normal life really is," she had posted on February 28 while revealing some details of her ordeal, which included an explosion near her place of stay.
She had described the experience as "extremely tense and scary moment" for her and her team, including Indonesian coach Irwansyah Adi Pratama.
