U-17 Wrestling World C'ships: Hardeep advances to 110kg GR final

India's Hardeep stormed into the final of 110kg Greco-Roman, assuring India of its first medal at the 2025 U-17 World Wrestling Championships in Athens, Greece on Monday.

The 16-year-old Indian got the better of Turkey's Emrullah Capkan 4-2 in the semi-finals to book his spot in the gold medal bout.

Hardeep had earlier started his campaign in the qualification round with a 2-0 win over Baktur Sovetkhan of Kazakhstan in the qualification round. 

He then beat Poland's Mateusz Jaroslaw Tomelka 4-2 in the Round of 16 before registering a 9-0 win by technical superiority – the biggest win of his campaign – against Anatolii Novachenko of Ukraine in the quarter-finals.

Anuj, Aditya to fight for bronze

Elsewhere, India's Aditya Gupta (55kg Greco-Roman) and Anuj (65kg Greco-Roman) made their way into the bronze medal bouts of their respective weight classes.

Both of them lost their respective semi-finals and will now fight for the third place on the podium.

While Gupta lost out 5-6 in a hard fought battle against Alkham Abdirasulov of Kyrgyzstan, Anuj was bested 1-9 on technical superiority by Georgia's Erekle Tavberidze.  

Among the other Indians in action on the opening day of 2025 U-17 World Wrestling Championships, Aditya Jadhav went down in the quarter-finals of 48kg Greco-Roman after a 0-8 loss on technical superiority to Japan's Kaisei Yamamoto.

On the other hand, Samarth Govekar, in men's 80kg Greco-Roman, had his campaign end in the qualification round itself following a 0-11 technical superiority loss to Turkey's Ismail Bereket.