Ramesh Kumar creates history; wins bronze

New Delhi: India`s Ramesh Kumar created history by winning the bronze medal in the freestyle 74kg category at the World Wrestling Championship in Herning, Denmark. The Uttar Pradesh wrestler did what Beijing Olympic bronze medallist Sushil Kumar failed to achieve, clinching India`s first medal in the prestigious event after a gap of 32 years. Kumar defeated Alexandr Burca of Moldova on technical points after the repechage round ended with both the wrestlers tied at the score of 7-7 last night. Kumar, however, started the bout on a disappointing note, trailing 0-3 after the first period. He then came back strongly in the second session to score two points and then finished off the final period picking up five points as against his opponent`s four to finally come out victorious on technical points. Kumar had earlier defeated Dustin Schlatter of the US 3-2 in the opening round. His next casualty was Great Britain`s Michael Grundy, whom he beat 4-2 and then prevailed over Kiril Terziev of Bulgaria 7-4 in the quarterfinal. Kumar, however, lost out on the gold medal opportunity, going down 0-5 to Chamsulvara Chamsulvarayev of Azerbaijan in the last-four stage to set up a repechage encounter against Burca. The gold in this category was won by Denis Tsargush of Russia. Earlier, Olympic bronze medallist Sushil Kumar failed to replicate boxer Vijender Singh`s feat and lost out on a medal opportunity in the elite event after losing the bronze medal play-off match in the 66kg freestyle category on Tuesday. Meanwhile, in the female style, India`s Nirmala Devi lost in the opening round of the 48kg category to Great Britain`s Yana Stadnik, while Babita Kumari bowed out in the quarterfinal against Natalia Budu of Moldova in 51kg division. Bureau Report