Artur Taymazov of Uzbekistan (right) and Kerry McCoy of the US during their 120 kg final at the world wrestling championship in New York on Sunday. Taymazov won gold. (Reuters)

New Delhi: India’s sole medal contender Sushil Kumar narrowly missed the bronze medal finishing fourth in the 37th world wrestling championship which concluded at the Madison Square Garden in New York.

Fighting a tough bout, Sushil Kumar lost to Azerbaijan’s Abdullaev Arif Yadulla 8-9 in the 60kg category, according to information received here on Monday.

Though India failed to win any medal in the competition, two of its grapplers Sushil Kumar and Sujit Mann (74 kg), secured berths for the next year’s Olympic Games in Athens.

Maan made it to Athens even though he lost his quarter final bout against Hadi Habibi of Iran on Sunday.

The top ten men and five women in each division qualify for the Athens Olympics, which will be first games to feature women’s wrestling.

Georgia won the men’s team title edging hosts US while the champions of freestyle wrestling, Iran, settled for the third position. Japan won the women’s team title.

The other members of the Indian contingent also put up a decent show before bowing out.

In the 120-kg class, Jagdish Kaliraman lost to Aleksi Modebadze of Georgia 0-7 in the third round to finish 16th.

In other weight categories Ramesh Kumar, Anuj Kumar and Kripa Shanker Patel made early exits.

In the women’s section, Kamini Yadav gave a tough fight to Fani Psatha of Greece before going down 5-8 in the third round of 48-kg class.

Sonika Kaliraman lost to Svetlana Sayenko of Ukraine by technical fall in third round of the 72-kg category.