Istanbul: Vinesh Phogat won the gold at the Yasar Dogu International wrestling meet with a commanding 9-5 win over Russia’s Ekaterina Poleschuk here on Sunday, July 14.
This was her second consecutive gold in the 53 kg category, having also won at the Spanish Grand Prix last week.
The 24-year-old ace wrestler won two of her three bouts by technical superiority enroute the gold. This was the third gold in the women’s competition in Istanbul for India after Seema (50 kg) and Manju (59 kg) won in their respective categories.
2016 Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik, who was making her comeback after an injury, did not reach the medal rounds. She lost her pre-quarterfinal bout but was in contention for a bronze with a repechage. However, she lost the repechage round by a close margin to Russian Uliana Tukurenova.
Gold medallist at Madrid Divya Kakran (68kg) and Pooja Dhanda (57kg), who won a silver in the same competition, did not reach the medal rounds either. Divya was knocked out in the qualification round while Pooja lost in the quarterfinal.
In men’s freestyle wrestling, Rahul Aware (61 kg) clinched his maiden career ranking series title with a tactical 4-1 win over Munir Atlas of Turkey. Utkarsh Kale had won bronze in the same category. Sumit won bronze in the 125 kg category.
Sonba Tanaji (65 kg), competing in the absence of Bajrang Punia, lost his bronze medal bout to Turkey’s Cengizhan Erdogan by technical superiority. Rajneesh (70 kg) and Viky (92 kg) too lost their bronze medal bouts while Amit Dhankar (74 kg) and Styawart Kadiyan (97 kg) could not go beyond the qualification rounds.
