Seema & Sumit seal Tokyo spots
7: Seema Bisla on Friday became the fourth Indian woman wrestler to qualify for the Tokyo Games by reaching the final of the
50kg competition even as Sumit Malik settled for a silver medal after conceding his final bout due to a knee injury at the World Olympic Qualifiers, here.
Seema booked an Olympic berth for herself after a close 2-1 win over European Championship bronze medallist Anna Lukasiak of Poland, showing tremendous defensive skills in the semifinal.
After giving away a point on passivity, Seema pulled off a quick take down in the first period for a 2-1 lead, which she kept till the end to earn the quota.
She will now fight for gold against Ecuador’s Lucia Yamileth Yepez Guzman on Saturday.
The 29-year-old is the fourth Indian to qualify for the Games after celebrated Vinesh Phogat (53kg), Anshu Malik (57kg) and Sonam Malik (62kg). It will be first time that four Indian women wrestlers will compete in the Olympics. In the 2106 edition, three Indian women
wrestlers had competed.
Nisha (68kg) and Pooja
(76kg), however, failed to win quota after losing their respective bouts.
Meanwhile, Malik, who had become only the fourth men’s free style wrestler to qualify for the Olympics, did not take the mat for his
125kg gold medal fight against Russia’s Sergei Kozyrev, the 2018 Youth Olympic champion, due to injury.
National coach Jagmander Singh said that Malik had injured his right knee during practice at the national camp a few weeks back and competed only because an Olympic quota was at stake.