India women return empty-handed from Junior World Wrestling Championship

India women return empty-handed from Junior World Wrestling Championship

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Indian women wrestlers returned empty-handed from the Junior World Wrestling Championships for the first time in three years. Bharti Baghel, India’s last hope for a medal, squandered a 3-1 lead to lose her bronze medal bout against Kyrgyzstan’s Nuraida Anarkulova in Tallinn on Friday.

In the 57kg clash, Bharti started off on the front foot as she opened up a 2-0 lead with a takedown. Despite Nuraida earning one back right after, the Indian closed out the first period with a 2-1 lead. She then added one more point to her kitty with a push out, but that was to be the last of her joys on the day. Nuraida held locked Bharti’s arms and soon found a takedown to tie the score at 3-3, to claim the win having won the last point. 

India’s only other medal bout came in the 59kg with Anshu Malik. Anshu, who won a bronze last year in Slovakia, failed to repeat her heroics this time around. In the 53kg category, Pooja lost her chance to be in medal contention, after losing her repechage round match 1-6 to Uzbekistan’s Shokhida Akhmedova.

The last time Indian women returned without a single medal was in 2016 edition in Macon, France. Last year, Anshu (59kg) and Mansi (57kg) had returned with a bronze medal while Manju Kumari (59kg) was the lone Indian woman medallist from the 2017 edition.

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