World U20 Wrestling Championships 2022: India’s Priya wins silver medal
Tokyo Olympian Sonam Malik and reigning junior Asian champions Antim and Priyanka will fight for gold on Friday.
Cadet world champion Priya won the women’s 76kg silver medal at the World U20 Wrestling Championships 2022 in Sofia, Bulgaria on Thursday.
The promising Indian wrestler scored the first point against Japan’s Ayano Moro in round one of the final but conceded three in the second period to lose 3-1.
ओलम्पिक और खेल खबरे हिन्दी में: यहां क्लिक करें
Earlier, Priya defeated Kazakhstan’s Alina Yertostik by fall and then scored a 6-4 win over Turkey’s Melisa Saritac in the quarter-finals. She made it to the final with a narrow 6-5 win over the U20 European champion Veronika Nyikos of Hungary in the semis.
Priya won her second straight gold medal at the cadet world championships earlier in the year. She is also the reigning Asian champion in the cadet age group and brought back a silver medal from the U20 Asian Championships held in Bahrain in July.
Apart from Priya’s silver, Priyanshi Prajapat (women’s 50kg) also won bronze on Thursday to take India’s medals tally to nine, which includes two silvers and seven bronze medals. It was Priyanshi Prajapat’s first medal on the world stage.
Priyanshi Prajapat blanked U23 Asian Championships bronze medallist Laura Ganikyzy of Kazakhstan 8-0 in the round of 16 and thwarted a late comeback by Ukraine’s Aida Kerymova in the quarters to win 9-7.
In the semi-finals, Priyanshi Prajapat’s run was halted by eventual gold medallist Umi Ito of Japan, who beat the Indian wrestler via technical superiority (10-0).
However, Priyanshi Prajapat got the better of the reigning U23 Asian champion Munkhgerel Munkhbat of Mongolia to bag the bronze medal.
Tokyo Olympian and two-time cadet world champion Sonam Malik (women’s 62kg), reigning junior Asian champions Antim (women’s 53kg) and Priyanka (women’s 65kg) will fight for gold on Friday.
Manju (women’s 55kg) and Bhagyashree Hanumant Fand (women’s 59kg), meanwhile, made it to the bronze medal play-offs but could not secure a medal after losing their respective bouts on Thursday.