Indian grappler Ravinder settled for a silver medal after going down to Kyrgyzstan’s Ulukbek Zholdoshbekov in the 61kg final at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championship here on Wednesday.

Despite the loss, it was a creditable performance from Ravinder, who had won gold at the South Asian Games in 2016 and also a bronze at the Cadet Asian Championships in 2014.

This was India’s first medal at the 2019 edition and overall fifth silver at the Championships. Bajrang Punia , Vinod Kumar and women wrestler Ritu Phogat had won a silver each in the first edition in Poland.

Last year, Ravi Dhaiya was the only Indian wrestler to return with a medal when he claimed a silver in Bucharest, Romania.Ravinder had his chances in the final but he couldn’t outwit Ulukbek, a bronze winner at the Senior Asian Championships in 2018.

The Indian led till the end of the first period but a strong comeback from Ulukbek ensured that the latter won the bout 5-3 by superiority of play.

Earlier, the 22-year-old Indian had pinned senior European champion Arsen Harutyunan of Armenia to storm into the final with a 4-3 win.

Ravinder had notched up a 12-1 win over Hungary’s Marcell Budai Kovacs in his opening bout and then followed it up with an 11-0 demolition of Russia’s Dinislam Takhtarov in the quarter-finals.

Among other Indians, Jyoti stormed into the semi-finals on Wednesday with a 12-1 win over Moldova’s Maria Leorda in the women’s 50kg bout.