World Wrestling Championships | Sarita Mor ousts Pooja Dhanda to book place in final

07/29/2019

World Championships bronze medallist Pooja Dhanda was stunned at the national selections on Sunday as she was beaten by Sarita Mor in the 57kg category, who booked a place in the World Wrestling Championships Final. Asian bronze-medallist Divya Kakran, however, made the cut by beating Navjot Kaur.

This wasn’t the first time that Mor had got the better of Dhanda. Prior to the 2017 Asian championships, silver medallist Mor had beaten the bronze medalist Dhanda 6-5 in a thrilling bout at the Pro Wrestling League in January. And she did it again on Sunday to book a place in the final of the World Wrestling Championships, which would be the first event offering quota places in 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

In other matches of the six Olympics categories trials for women, Seema got the better of veteran Nirmala 7-0 in the 50kg place, while Divya Kakran defeated former Asian champion Navjot Kaur 6-3 to secure the 68kg spot.

Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik and Asian Games and Commonwealth Games gold medal winner Vinesh Phogat also won their respective bouts against Reshma Mane and Pinki by margins of 13-2 and 9-0 to qualify in 62kg and 53kg respectively. Kiran defeated Gursharanpreet Kaur 6-4 to boot the 76kg berth.

The trials for four non-Olympic weights – 55kg, 59kg, 65kg and 72kg – will be held in the second week of August.