Zagreb: Young Suraj Vashishth gave a good account of himself on his senior World Championship debut, making the 60kg quarterfinals before bowing out while Aman suffered an early exit from the tournament here Friday.
When other Greco Roman wrestlers have struggled to make one scoring move, the U20 World Championships bronze winner and U20 Asian champion won two bouts, giving something to cheer about to the coaching staff.
Suraj won 3-1 against Angel Tellez and followed that up with a 3-1 win over Moldova's Victor Ciobanu.
However, he lost his quarterfinal 1-4 against Serbia's Georgij Tibilov.
The 19-year-old from Rohtak had ended India's six-year long wait for a gold at international level when he won the U20 Asian title in Bishkek in July this year. More experience and exposure at the senior level should help him improve. Competing in 72kg, Ankit Gulia lost his qualification bout by technical superiority to Korean Yeonghun Noh, who later lost his quarterfinal to spell the ouster
of the Indian.