Having stamped their supremacy at the Asian Junior Championships, India’s young grapplers will now aim for a rich medal haul at the World Junior Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, that commences on Tuesday.
The promising Mangal Kadyan leads a 24-member contingent, which will fight it out in three categories — Greco-Roman, men’s freestyle and women’s freestyle.
India won a whopping 17 medals — three gold, five silver and nine bronze — in the Asian championships held at Phuket, Thailand in June. The freestyle wrestlers bagged the overall trophy ahead of heavyweights Iran. Freestyle wrestlers Pradeep Kumar (60kg) and Sumit (96kg), who won gold medals in Phuket, have been replaced by Parveen and Satyawart Kadian. Silver-medallist in the Asian Championships, Vikas (66kg), and Mandeep (55kg), bronze medal winner, too have missed the bus to Sofia.