The young Indian wrestlers added two more medals to their kitty at the U23 World Wrestling Championships in Tirana, Albania via women’s freestyle category on Thursday.
Anjli (59 Kg) and Monika (68 Kg) won silver and bronze medals, respectively. After the halfway stage of the competition, India now has three medals overall: one silver and two bronze medals.
Anjli was the only Indian wrestler who reached the final of these championships across both the Greco-Roman and Women’s Freestyle categories.
However, she failed to go all the way and lost a very close (4-7) final match against the defending champion Solomiia Vynnyk of Ukraine, and settled with the silver medal from the competition.
Meanwhile, Monika grabbed a bronze medal in women’s 68 kg after an intense battle (5-3) against the Chinese wrestler, Xinze Du in the bronze medal match.
Bhavika Patel was the only other Indian wrestler in the medal match on Thursday but she failed to convert it and lost a close bronze medal match bout (2-5) to American wrestler, Amani Jones.
Neha Sharma, Shiksha into bronze medal matches
Indian women’s freestyle wrestlers continued their good showing at the competition as Neha Sharma (57 Kg), and Shiksha (65 Kg) progressed to the bronze medal matches.
Neha had a brilliant start to the competition as she won (9-4) against the Canadian wrestler Mia Friesen in the quarterfinal. However, she fell short of a spot in the final after losing her semifinals with a narrow 1-point margin (2-3) to a Japanese wrestler.
Neha was a silver medalist in the last edition but in women’s 55 kg, she will be fighting for her second consecutive U23 World medal later tonight in the bronze medal match.
On the other hand, 17-year-old Shiksha was the star of the day in women’s 65 kg as she reached the semifinals with three good victories including two pin falls over Albanian and Italian wrestlers respectively.
However, she could not cross the big huddle of former senior world champion, Irina Rîngaci of Moldova in the semifinals. She will now compete in the bronze medal match later tonight.
The final discipline of men’s freestyle wrestling will also be unveiled on Friday as five wrestlers (61-74-86-92-125 kg) will be in action at elimination rounds.
Comments are closed.