Vinesh Phogat (53kg) and Seema Bisla (50kg) remain in hunt for a bronze medal as y reached repech round in ir respective categories at UWW World Senior Wrestling Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan today. Asian Games gold medallist Vinesh h earlier begun her quest for a maiden medal from world event with a thunderous 13-0 win over Rio Olympic bronze medallist Sofia Mattsson of Sweden. Even though it sparked hopes of gold, her next bout against reigning world champion Mayu Mukaida of Japan proved tough. strong Japanese kept Indian on backfoot and prevented her from showing her usual aggression, resulting in a 0-7 loss for Commonwealth Games gold medallist. This was second consecutive defeat that Vinesh suffered at hands of Mukaida following Asian Championships.

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Vinesh and Seema keep India's hopes alive

However, with Mukaida managing to reach final, Vinesh was presented with yet ar shot at a medal as she will w take on former World Championships bronze medallist Yuliya Khalvzhy of Ukraine. A win over her, as well as a win over last year’s runner-up Sarah Hildebrandt, will put Vinesh in bronze medal bout versus Greece’s two-time World Championships medallist Maria Prevolaraki and also fetch her a highly-coveted Tokyo Olympics qualification. In 50kg, Seema Bisla’s second seeding did t exempt her from facing three-time Olympic medallist Mariya Stnik of Azerbaijan in opening bout. Yasar Dogu champion came up short 2-9 against Stnik but with latter progressing into summit clash, Seema got ar golden chance to sniff at a medal and a 2020 Olympic berth. For Seema to take bronze, she needs to first overcome Nigeria’s Miesinnei Mercy Genesis, n gets better of Yasar Dogu silver medallist Ekaterina Poleshchuk before she can enter bronze medal contest with China’s Rio Olympic bronze medallist Sun Yanan. In n-Olympic categories, Komal Bhagwan Gole (72kg) could hardly put up any resistance against Turkey’s Beste Altug and went down 1-4 in qualification while in 55kg, Lalita succumbed to a 3-10 defeat to Mongolia's Bolortuya Bat Ochir. Meanwhile, India’s hopes of a medal in Greco-Roman wrestling were dashed when Naveen (130kg) lost to Estonia’s Heiki Nabi by Technical Superiority in Repech.

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Pooja Dhanda will look to secure ar medal

A year after securing World Championships bronze, Pooja Dhanda will hope to shine again in 59kg when seventh seed takes on sixth-seeded Belarusian Hanchar Yanu in Round of 16. A win will pit her against top seed Yuzuka Inagaki in a tough match. In 57kg, 30th seed Sarita Mor opens against European Championship bronze winner Anastasia Nichita while former Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Navjot Kaur (65kg) will meet European Championship gold medallist and third seed Elise Malova. In 76kg, Kiran also has a difficult opponent in third seed Aline Rotter of Germany.

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