Pinki in bronze play-off at World C’ships

CHENNAI: Indian woman wrestler Pinki lost closely fought 55kg semifinal 6-8 to Nina Hemmer of Germany in the ongoing World Championships in Oslo, Norway on Monday. She will now take on either American Jenna Rose Burkert or Andreea Beatrice Ana from Romania in the bronze medal play-off on Tuesday.

The Haryana wrestler defeated Soyeon Kim of Korea 5-0 in the qualification round before pinning down Kazakhstan’s Aisha Ualishan 4-1 to advance into the semifinal.In the 62kg category, Sangeeta Phogat registered a confident 5-2 victory over Germany’s Luisa Helga Gerda Niemesch in the qualification. Sangeeta, who is making a comeback to competitive wrestling after three years, however, lost the next bout to Brazilian Lais Nunes de Oliveira 4-6. The Brazilian lost semifinal against her American opponent thus drawing down curtains on Sangeeta’s campaign. 

The other two Indian wrestlers in action — Satywart Kadian (97kg) and Sushil (70kg) — lost their respective qualification rounds to make an early exit from the tournament. Kadian lost 6-6 on criteria against Korea’s Minwon Seo while Georgia’s Zurabi Iakobishvili beat Sushil 5-2. Kadian scored all of his six points by pushing his opponent out. 

Rohit loses

Meanwhile, Rohit lost (4-10) by a fall to Tulga Tumur Ochir of Mongolia in the bronze medal bout of 65kg weight category late on Monday evening. Earlier, Rohit had pulled off a four-pointer en route to a technical superiority win over Turkey’s Selahattin Kilicsallayan to progress to the medal play-off.