UP record first win after close contest
LUDHIANA: Unheralded Sarita of UP Warriors upset Turkish wrestler Yesilirmak Elif Jale of Dilli Veer 1-0 in the second match of the Pro Wrestling League on the final day of the Ludhiana leg on Tuesday. The wrestling caravan now moves to Manesar in Gurgaon.
Few had given unseeded Sarita a chance against her much experienced opponent who has in her kitty four European and world championship bronze medals she won between 2009 and 2015 in the 58kg category.
A technical foul committed by Jale made the difference in the match where the wrestlers gave away very little.
Capitalising on the victory, UP Warriors registered their first win of the League. Delhi Veer lost four bouts out of seven.
It was second defeat in a row to Haryana Hammers in their first match.
The most interesting match was between Babita Kumari Horishna of Delhi Veer. Babita who is a cousin of the Phogat sisters exhausted her Ukrainian opponent and turned the match part of the bout. At one point, Liliya had opened up a 12-6 lead but vociferous support for the home girl helped he claw back into the match. In the end Babita edged out Liliya 13-12.
Another Phogat sister Vinesh of Dilli Veer then bulldozed her Ukrainian opponent Kogut Oleksandra representing UP Warriors 11-0.
Erdenebat Bekhbayar of Mongolia playing for Dilli Veer defeated UP Warriors’ Jaideep in the under-57kg category 6-3 and following a tie between Krishan Kumar of Dilli Veer and Joginder Kumar of UP Warriors which went in favour of the former on technical point, there was nothing to choose between the teams.
It all boiled down to the last bout between Gurpal Singh of Dilli Veer and Satyavrat Kadian of UP Warriors where the latter prevailed 4 1 to help UP win their