ASTANA, OCT 28 (PTI): India missed out on its maiden women’s world wrestling title as Neelam Sirohi and Kajal Dhochak lost their respective finals at the World Championships on Wednesday, settling for silver medals in a historic achievement for the country.
For the first time, two Indian women wrestlers competed in the gold medal bouts at the same edition of the World Championships. Before this edition, only Anshu Malik had reached a senior World Championships final. Sushil Kumar remains India’s only world champion, having won the title in 2010.
Neelam lost to Japan’s four-time world champion Yui Susaki in the women’s 50kg final. After keeping Susaki at bay for nearly three minutes, the Indian was taken down and pinned, allowing the Japanese wrestler to claim her fifth world title. Kajal came agonisingly close to winning gold in the women’s 76kg final against Ukraine’s Anastasiya Alpyeyeva, a three-time European champion. The contest remained closely fought, with the score level at 4-4 before Alpyeyeva scored a decisive takedown with 20 seconds remaining.
Kajal responded with a two-point takedown with five seconds left but could not complete the comeback, losing 6-8. The two-time U20 world champion had earlier produced a remarkable 10-7 comeback victory over Kyrgyzstan’s Aiperi Medet Kyzy in the semifinals after trailing 1-7.
India’s other wrestlers endured a difficult day. Nishu lost 0-8 to Romania’s Andreea Beatrice Ana in the 53kg pre-quarterfinals, while Srishti went down 1-5 to Kyrgyzstan’s Meerim Zhumanazarova in the 68kg category after an opening 8-0 victory. Srishti remains in contention through repechage.
Neha Sangwan suffered a 76-second defeat to Russian top seed Amina Tandelova in the 62kg category, while Tanu Sharma lost 2-9 to Poland’s Wiktoria Choluj in the qualification round but remains in the bronze medal race through repechage.
Rajnita also exited the women’s 65kg category after losing 2-6 to Japan’s Nana Ikehata in repechage.
