Las Vegas, Oct 16: India’s Amruta Pujari stormed into the women’s 72kg final at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships with a dominant show, pinning both her opponents after taking the lead to put herself in contention for a gold medal.
Amruta first defeated Kazakhstan’s Sabyrzhanova after opening up a 7-1 lead before producing another strong performance in the semifinals, pinning China’s Wenjin Qiu after leading 10-8.
Hailing from Solapur in Maharashtra, Amruta will now face Ukraine’s Iryna Zablotska in the gold-medal bout.
Komal also secured a podium finish, winning the bronze medal in the women’s 59kg category with a convincing 7-2 victory over Kazakhstan’s Viktoriia Khusainova.
Komal had reached the bronze-medal playoff after losing her semifinal to Ukraine’s Alina Filipovych by technical superiority.
Earlier, she had beaten Canada’s Ella Finding on criteria after the bout ended 1-1 and defeated Moldova’s Madalina Prisacari 8-3.
Meanwhile, Sweety remains in contention for a bronze medal in the 53kg category through the repechage route after losing her quarterfinal 2-11 to Cristelle Rodriguez Dobler.
Sweety had made a strong start to her campaign by defeating Kazakhstan’s Dinara Dauylkyzy in the pre-quarterfinals.
With Dobler progressing to the final, the Indian has earned a repechage opportunity and will face China’s Xiaptong Zeng for a place in the bronze-medal bout.
Vaishnavi Patil is also in the medal hunt in the 65kg category through repechage. She will take on Japan’s Haruka Kobaru after losing her quarterfinal to Russia’s Ekaterina Koshkina by technical superiority.
Meanwhile, Diksha Malik finished fifth in the women’s 76kg category.
India could not field wrestlers in the women’s 50kg, 55kg, 57kg and 62kg categories and Greco Roman style’s 60kg, 77kg, 82kg, 97kg and 130kg weight divisions due to visa issues.
Vishvajit More had won a silver in Greco Roman’s 55kg weight category to give India its first medal in the competition. (PTI)
