One of India's gems from the Rio Olympics 2016, Sakshi Malik, gets set to feature in the Wrestling World Championships 2017 on Thursday, August 24 in Paris. The Olympics bronze medallist is one of India's biggest medal hopes from the ongoing tournament.
So far, it's not been a very impressive campaign for the Indians. The Greco-Roman wrestlers had a disappointing show on Day 1 of the tournament as the likes of Yogesh (71kg), Gurpreet Singh (75kg), Ravinder Khatri (85kg) and Hardeep (98kg) got first round exits.
READ: Full schedule of the World Championships
Day 2 bought some hopes as Gyanender Dahiya (59kg) defeated China's Ding Libin to enter the pre-quarterfinals of the men's Greco-Roman wrestling category, but the Indian thereafter lost to Mirambek Ainagulov of Kazakhstan in the round of 16.
Ravinder (66kg), Harpreet Singh (80kg) and Naveen (130kg), meanwhile lost their respective Greco-roman bouts on Tuesday.
After this disappointing start, the women army are set to take to the mat from Wednesday onwards, with Sakshi Malik and Vinesh Phogat remaining the major attractions. Here is the schedule:
On Wednesday, the likes of Lalita Sehrawat (55kg), Pooja Dhanda (58kg), Shilpi Sheoran (63kg) and Pooja (75kg) will take to the centre stage.
Thursday, meanwhile, is the most hopeful day for India to win a medal or two from the tournament. Vinesh Phogat (48kg), Sheetal Tomar (53kg), Sakshi Malik (60kg) and Navjot Kaur (69kg) are in action.
Tough first round challenge for Sakshi
The 24-year-old wrestler, who has moved up to the 60kg category, takes on Risako Kawai, the Rio 2016 Olympics gold medallist at the women's 63kg category.
Sakshi enters the tournament on the back of a silver medal win in the women's 60kg category at the Asian Wrestling Championships in May this year.
She has never won a medal previously at the Wrestling World Championships.
How to watch Sakshi's fight:
Live streaming : United World Wrestling official website.
Live scores : Twitter.
