Commonwealth Games 2022 wrestling: Pooja Gehlot beats Scottish ‘Dangal’ star to bag bronze at Birmingham
Indian wrestler Pooja Gehlot won the bronze medal in the women’s 50kg freestyle wrestling category at Birmingham 2022.
Former world junior silver medallist Pooja Gehlot had to settle for a bronze medal in the women’s 50kg freestyle wrestling event at the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham, UK on Saturday.
The podium finish at Birmingham 2022 was the first major senior international medal for the 25-year-old Indian.
With only six wrestlers competing in the division, the women’s 50kg at Birmingham 2022 was competed in a two-pool Nordic Group system, where three wrestlers from each group faced each other and the top two from each pool made the semi-finals.
Pooja Gehlot was placed in Group A alongside Cameroon’s Rebecca Ndolo Muambo and Scotland’s Christelle Lemofack Letchidjio, a wrestler who had represented Cameroon at Glasgow 2014.
Letchidjio incidentally played a role in Aamir Khan’s Dangal, a Bollywood movie on wrestling loosely based on the lives of India’s famous Phogat sisters.
With Muambo forfeiting her bouts, Pooja Gehlot beat Letchidjio by technical superiority (12-2) to make the semi-finals at the Coventry Stadium and Arena.
Up against Canada’s Madison Parks, the 2022 Matteo Pellicone champion, in the semis, Pooja Gehlot conceded a sizable lead to go down 9-6 and entered the bronze medal match, where she would again face Letchidjio, who lost her own semi-final bout to Nigeria’s Mercy Genesis.
In the medal bout, the Scotswoman scored first to take a 2-0 lead, but Pooja Gehlot came roaring back and scored 10 points in quick succession towards the end of the first period. Shortly after the restart, the Indian wrapped up the affair to win the bout by technical superiority.