Bajrang, Pinki win gold; Sakshi Malik disappoints

Bajrang Punia won his second consecutive international gold while Sandeep Tomar had to be content with a silver medal at the Yasar Dogu International as Indian wrestlers returned with 10 medals, including seven by women, from the ranking event in Istanbul, Turkey.

In the women’s competition, Pinki was the lone gold medallist in the 55kg category with her 6-3 win over Ukraine’s Olga Shnaider in the final but Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik endured a disappointing result as she failed to reach the medal round in the 62kg category.

Overall Indian women grapplers outperformed the men’s by winning seven medals. CWG champion Bajrang, who won a gold at the Tbilisi Grand Prix in Gerogia early this month, did not have to break a sweat as his gold medal opponent Andriy Kvyatkovskyy from Ukraine withdrew from the 70kg final due to an injury.

In the 61kg final, Sandeep, who was the last Indian to grab a place in Indian men’s Asian Games squad, lost 2-8 to Iran’s Mohammadbagher Yakhkeshi. Vicky had won a bronze in the 57kg.

All other Indian men’s wrestlers — Amit (65kg), Jitendra (74kg), Pawan (86kg), Deepak (92kg), Jashkawar Singh (97 and 125kg) failed to reach the medal rounds. On Sunday two gold medals were at stake in the women’s 53kg and 57kg categories but Seema and CWG silver medallist Pooja Dhanda lost their final bouts.

Seema was outplayed 2-10 by Ukraine’s Khrystyna Bereza while Pooja was outclassed 0-11 by another Ukrainian Irnya Khariv.

In the 62kg, Sarita grabbed a bronze with a commanding 10-0 win over Turkey’s Cansu Aksoy. In the same category Sakshi also competed but she won only her qualification round before suffering a defeat by fall against Elmira Gambarova in the quarter-finals.

It was Sakshi’s first competition since winning a bronze at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games this year.