On a disappointing day for India at the Junior World Championship, the country’s female wrestlers endured a medal-less outing with the talented Anshu Malik getting losing out in the fight for bronze against Ukraine’s Kateryna Zelenykh in the Estonian city of Tallinn on Thursday.
Considered India’s next big hope, Anshu lost the 59kg bout by technical superiority, unable to find a way to handle Kateryna’s superb counter-attacking moves.
It was Anshu who opened up a two-point lead with a takedown but after that, it was one-way traffic in favour of the Ukrainian.
The Ukrainian levelled the score with a right leg attack that led to a two-point move. She remained strong throughout with Anshu hardly getting time to employ her moves as she was kept busy in defending.
In the second period, it was complete dominance by Kateryna, who rattled the Indian with a four-point move and then finished the contest with back-to-back gut wrenches.
With more than 90 seconds left, Anshu was outplayed.
In the 57kg, Bharti Bhagel won her first two bouts by technical superiority to make it to the semi-finals, beating Canada’s Jolie Donna Elizabeth Brisco (12-2) and Belarus’ Viktoryia Volk (11-0).
But she lost her semi-final by fall to Japan’s Akie Hana.
She will now fight for bronze against the winner of the bout between Nuraida Anarkulova and Tanya Dobromirova Teneva.
In the 50kg repechage round, India’s Neelam fought hard against Ukraine’s Mariia Vynnyk, but eventually lost 9-13.
In the 53kg, Pooja could not go beyond the qualification round, losing by technical superiority to Haruna Okuno from Japan. To be in contention for bronze, she now has to overcome Uzbekistan’s Shokhida Akhmedova in the repechage round.
Anju lost her 55kg quarterfinal 1-9 to Japan’s Saki Igarashi while Radhika (62kg) and Tina (65kg) also lost at the same stage.
In the 68kg repechage round, Priyanaka was outplayed 0-11 by Mongloia’s Delgermaa Enkhsaikhan. Another wrestler to make exit from the repechage round was Karuna, who lost 0-6 to Japan’s Yasuha Matsuyuki.
In the 72kg, Anshu Gujjar also failed to go beyond the Qualification round, losing 2-2 to China’s Shuiyan Cheng.
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