Las Vegas, Oct 15: Indian wrestler Vishvajit Ramchandra More clinched India's first-ever silver medal in Greco Roman category at the U23 World Championships here on Thursday.
A two-time bronze medallist at the U23 world level went down 12-13 to Georgia's Koba Karumidze in the final seconds of the men’s 55kg Greco-Roman final.
More, who was India's only Greco-Roman wrestler to win two medals at the U23 World Championships, became India's first-ever Greco-Roman finalist at the U23 Worlds on Tuesday.
He put on a stunning performance with three close wins. He opened his campaign with a 10-8 win over Isaac Marin Mata of Mexico to set up a quarterfinal against U20 world champion Armin Shamsipour of Iran. He used a four-pointer throw against Shamsipour, who seemed to have injured his shoulder, for an 8-1 win.
The semifinal against Malik Gigiev of Russia was equally thrilling, with challenges helping both the wrestlers as More walked away with a 6-4 win.
More entered the final with an aim to become the first Indian wrestler to win gold medal in Greco-Roman at the U23 Worlds, but he fell short of it against the Georgian, who also had a thrilling semifinal against Kyrgyzstan's Barsbek Asankozhoev to make it to the final.
However, India's campaign had been hit with an administrative hurdle earlier as nine U23 wrestlers (across greco-roman and women's wrestling categories) were denied visas for the U23 World Wrestling Championships 2026 in Las Vegas for being under-20 and having no full-time jobs.
"The US Embassy rejected the visas of nine Indian wrestlers on the grounds that they are unemployed. For the first time in history this has happened. Even the UWW president wrote to them regarding the matter. This visa refusal is entirely the US Embassy's fault, and as a result, India lost out on gold medals. Among the nine wrestlers denied visas, at least two were strong gold medal prospects. India suffered a major medal loss due to the US Embassy's fault," WFI chief Sanjay Singh told IANS on Wednesday.
--IANS