Gehlot grapples her way to final in U-23 World C’ships
NEW DELHI: Pooja Gehlot entered the final of women’s 53kg freestyle category at the U-23 World Wrestling Championships in Budapest on Thursday.
She became only the second Indian woman wrestler to reach the summit clash after Ritu Phogat, who won silver in 48 kg in the 2017 edition in Poland.
Trailing 2-4 in the initial stage of the semi-final bout against Turkey’s Zeynep Yetgil, the gritty Delhi wrestler bounced back to score a 8-4 win to stay in title race. She now faces title favourite Haruno Okuno of Japan in Friday’s final.
The in-form Gehlot has been winning her bouts comfortably right from the qualifying stages where she had demolished Ekaterina Verbina of Russia 8-3. She also dominated her quarter-final bout against Meng Hsuan Hsieh of Taipei, winning 8-0.
The 22-year-old Gehlot, who started competing five years back, had won gold in the junior Asian Championships two years back but this is the first time she has made the final of the global tournament.
Although battling shoulder injuries in recent months, she clinched gold at the U-23 National Championships at Shirdi in September to earn a place in the national squad for the World Championships.
India’s other medal hope of the day in women’s wrestling, Haryana’s Jyoti lost 0-10 to Nadezhda Sokolova of Russia in the 50kg bronze medal match.
In 57kg, Pinki Rani advanced to the quarters from the qualifiers, scoring a 5-0 victory over Arian Geralin Carpio of the USA. But her good run came to an end in the last-eight stage at the hands of Hannah Fay Taylor of Canada. The Indian lost 2-1.
Gehlot’s medal will be the second for India at this edition. On Wednesday, Ravinder had won silver in the men’s 61kg freestyle. He had lost 3-5 to Ulukbek Zholdoshbekov of Kyrgyzstan in the final.