UWW World Wrestling Championship has started. The Indian Greco wrestlers had a dismal opening day with all four of them in fray failed to win single bout on the opening day. But the biggest upset of the day happened somewhere else. The day 1 morning session saw a huge upset in the 82kg weight category, when QIAN Haitao (CHN) threw down 2018 world silver medalist and top seed Emrah KUS (TUR) with a headlock and held on for a fall in 2:00.
That was a harbinger of things to come in a weight class that threw away the form book and saw only one of the four seeds make it to the semifinals.
Unheralded Nurbek KHASHIMBEKOV (UZB) knocked off European champion and fourth seed Rajbek BISULTANOV (DEN), lifting him from the par terre and dumping him onto his back before securing a fall at 1:43. Khashimbekov will next face European silver medalist Lasha GOBADZE (GEO), who had little trouble ousting Qian by technical fall.
In the other semifinal, Asian champion Saied ABDVALI (IRI) will face Rafig HUSEYNOV (AZE). Abvali defeated Adlan AKIEV (RUS), who had ousted 2018 bronze medalist Maksim MANUKYAN (ARM) by fall in a thrilling second-round match.
Huseynov quieted the home crowd momentarily when he threw down Maxat YEREZHEPOV (KAZ), who suffered an apparent rib injury and was forced to default. Earlier, Yerezhepov had ousted 2018 world bronze medalist and No. 2 seed Viktor SASUNOVSKI (BLR).
