Sanju Devi, Saneh and Bhateri have entered into the semifinals of the junior world wrestling championships in the 72kg category. Bhateri progressed to the last four stages due to the favourable draw she managed to get on Thursday.
The tenacious Sanju Devi, who may not look athletic from th outside, was quick with her moves and reflexes as she defeated Germany’s Lusia Schrel 5-2 and then came back from a 0-3 deficit to beat Croatian wrestler, Iva Geric 4-3 in her quarterfinal match.
Saneh hardly looked in any trouble against her opponent in Belarus, Kseniya Patapovich 6-2 in her opening match. In the quarters, she comfortably beat Mongolian representative Tsogzolmaa Dorjsuren, the final score being 7-0. Her double-leg attack which earned four points stood out in that match.
In other matches where Indian wrestlers were present, Pinki who was competing in the 53 kg category, started off well against the Turkish wrestler, Emine Cakmak. She led 5-4 and 7-6 throughout the match with a four-point takedown but the Turkish wrestler never felt nervous or jittery and ended up winning the bout against the Indian 12-7, with a timely takedown.
Mansi started off well with a first-round win over American, Claire Marie Dicugno with a 16-4 score. She ended up losing 1-9 in the quarterfinals to Turkey’s Elvira Kamaloglu, due to her two great four pointers on counter-attacks to pull away.
Yesterday, Ravinder got silver in the 61 kg category, while Yash, Pruthviraj Patel and Anirudh Kumar bagged medals in the 74 kg, 92 kg and 125 kg categories respectively. Gourav Baliyan(79 kg) and Deepak(97kg) won bronze medals too. India’s Bipasha(76 kg) went into the finals which will be held today, along with bronze medal matches of Simran(50kg), Sito, (55kg), Kusum(60 kg) and Arju(68kg).
