Indian wrestlers win gold, bronze in UWW event amid protests back home

Taking full advantage of small-sized draws, Manisha grabbed a gold and Reetika finished second-best in a three-wrestler competition, while battle-hardened Sarita Mor settled for a bronze as Indian women grapplers signed off with three medals from the UWW Ranking Series event here on Saturday.

Sarita did not lose a single point en route the 59kg semifinals, beating Turkey's Ebru Dagbasi 4-0 and Kazakshtan's Diana Kayumova 7-0.

The semifinal was also a close contest but she lost 4-5 to Ukraine's Solomiia Vynnyk.

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In the third-place play-off, the world championship bronze winner, defeated Kayumova again and this time by technical superiority and without conceding a point to win India's first medal in the women's competition.

In the five-wrestler 65kg draw, Manisha produced a dominating show by winning all three bouts by technical superiority en route the final.

She began with win over Kazakshtan's Irina Kazyulina and followed that up with victories over Gaukhar Mukatay (KAZ) and Purevsuren Ulziisaikhan from Mongolia without losing a single point.

In her final round match, she prevailed 6-2 over Ukraine's Yuliia Leskovets.

In the three-wrestler 72kg competition, Reetika won 7-0 against Italy's Dalma Caneva but lost 0-4 to Kazakhstan's Zhamila Bakbergenova to claim a silver medal.

In the 50kg, Neelam made an exit following a crushing defeat by fall against China's Ziqi Feng. Later the Chinese lost her semifinal clash, ending Neelam's chances to get back into the competition through the repechage route.

In the 53kg, India was represented by Pooja as Vinesh Phogat decided not to compete due to their protest against outgoing WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

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Pooja could not score a single point against China's Meiying Jiang, losing the qualification bout 0-4.

In the 55kg category, Sito, who is coming up from the junior rank, could not win a single bout and ended fifth in the six-wrestler draw.

In the men's freestyle competition, Deepak (97kg) and Anirudh Kumar (125kg) failed to reach the medal rounds in their respective categories.

India has so far won four medals from the tournament with Manjeet (55kg) winning a bronze in the Greco Roman competition.