Matteo Pellicone wrestling: Sarita Mor wins silver, bronze for Kuldeep Malik
Anshu Malik got injured in her bronze match while Gurpreet Singh was stunned in his qualification bout. Both grapplers had won medals at the Matteo Pellicone last year.
Sarita Mor and Kuldeep Malik added to India’s medal tally at the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series event in Rome with a silver and a bronze, respectively on Friday.
On the opening day, India bagged three medals in the Greco-Roman discipline with the latest effort taking the country’s tally to five medals in two days.
In the women’s 57kg category, Asian champion Sarita Mor dominated to beat Kazakhstan’s Altynay Satylgan 4-1 in the quarter-finals and then register a victory by fall over Emma Tissina in the semi-finals.
The 25-year-old Sarita lost 4-2 to Giullia Penalber of Bulgaria in the final but the Indian wrestler took home the silver medal.
Earlier, Giullia Penalber prevented an all-India final after the Bulgarian defeated Anshu Malik 10-7 in the semis. The Indian grappler had out-wrestled World Championships bronze medallist Evelina Georgieva Nikolova 11-6 in the quarters and was up against Italy’s Francesca Indelicato in the bronze match but forfeited due to injury.
Anshu Malik, 19, had won a silver at the Matteo Pellicone last year. She had been in good form of late, bagging the senior national wrestling title in January and a silver at the Individual World Cup in Belgrade in December. Before the COVID-19 break, she had bagged a bronze at the Asian championships last year.
In the 68kg, Rio 2016 Olympian Mimi Hristova of Bulgaria beat Nisha 10-3 in the qualifying match. The Indian then lost 3-2 to American Alexandria Junis Glaude in the repechage contest. Earlier, Canadian Olivia Grace di Bacco defeated Anita 2-1 in the quarters.
In the 76kg, Rio 2016 Olympic bronze medallist Elmira Syzdykova of Kazakhstan beat Kiran 10-3 in the quarter-final.
Last year’s champion exits early
Among the men, Kuldeep Malik sealed the 72kg bronze medal match in style after he defeated 2014 world champion Chingiz Labazanov of Russia 10-9.
Kuldeep had lost his opening round match against reigning European champion
Selcuk Can of Turkey but then the Indian beat Ecuador’s Cristhian Alberto Rivas Castro 1-0 in the next. In the semi’s, Kuldeep went down 5-0 to Hungary’s Robert Attila Fritsch.
Meanwhile, last year’s Matteo Pellicone gold medallist Gurpreet Singh suffered a shock 12-11 loss in the 82kg qualification match at the hands of American Ravaughn Richard Ravelle Perkins.
Harpreet Singh was the other Indian in the 82kg qualification match. He lost to Turkey’s Salih Aydin by fall**.
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