Las Vegas [US], October 16 (ANI): India’s Komal won bronze in the women’s 59kg category at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships, while Amruta Pujari advanced to the 72kg final with two pinfall victories.
Komal defeated Kazakhstan’s Viktoriia Khusainova 7–2 in the bronze-medal match to finish third in the division, as per a press release.
Earlier, she edged Canada’s Ella Finding on criteria after their bout ended 1–1 and then beat Moldova’s Madalina Prisacari 8–3. Her run was halted in the semifinal, where Ukraine’s Alina Filipovych won by technical superiority, sending Komal into the bronze-medal contest.
Pujari, a wrestler from Solapur, Maharashtra, will take on Ukraine’s Iryna Zablotska in the gold-medal bout. She opened her campaign with a fall against Kazakhstan’s Sabyrzhanova and followed it with another pin against China’s Wenjin Qiu in the semifinal.
The Indian established a 7–1 lead over Sabyrzhanova before ending the contest by fall. Against Qiu, Pujari was leading 10–8 when she secured the decisive pin to book her place in the final.
India also has two wrestlers, Sweety and Vaishnavi Patil, still in contention for bronze through repechage.
Sweety, competing at 53kg, defeated Kazakhstan’s Dinara Dauylkyzy in the pre-quarterfinals but then suffered an 11–2 loss to Cristelle Rodriguez Dobler in the quarterfinals. After Dobler reached the final, Sweety was reinstated through repechage. She will now face China’s Xiaptong Zeng, with the winner moving into the bronze-medal bout.
Vaishnavi will compete in the 65kg repechage against Japan’s Haruka Kobaru. She had earlier been beaten by Russia’s Ekaterina Koshkina through technical superiority in the quarterfinals.
Diksha Malik ended her campaign in the women’s 76kg category in fifth position.
India’s opening medal at the championships was won by Vishvajit More, who took silver in the Greco-Roman 55kg event.
However, visa-related problems kept Indian wrestlers out of four women’s categories—50kg, 55kg, 57kg and 62kg—as well as five Greco-Roman divisions—60kg, 77kg, 82kg, 97kg and 130kg. (ANI)
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