Manisha wins gold, Sarita settles for bronze at UWW Ranking Series
In the three-wrestler tournament, Manisha won gold and Reetika came in second place by taking full advantage of small-sized draws, while battle-tested Sarita Mor accepted a bronze medal as Indian women grapplers finished the UWW Ranking Series competition on Saturday with three medals overall.
Sarita defeated Kazakhstan's Diana Kayumova 7-0 and Turkey's Ebru Dagbasi 4-0 to go to the 59 kg semifinals without conceding a point. She fell against Ukraine's Solomiia Vynnyk by a score of 4-5 in the semifinal, which was also a tight match.
The bronze medalist from the world championship defeated Kayumova once more in the third-place play-off, but this time she did it via technical superiority and without giving up a point, earning India its first medal in the women's tournament.
"The preparation was good. Not having a national camp did not impact my training. I lost to the Ukrainian girl in a mini-second, she pulled off a tow-pointer in a dying moment. She took a risk and it paid off," Sarita told PTI. "I lost four points in the last 30 seconds actually but there was no complacency," she added.
On the other hand, Manisha put up a commanding performance in the five-wrestler 65kg draw by advancing to the final by winning all three of her matches by technical advantage. She started out by defeating Irina Kazyulina of Kazakhstan before triumphing over Gaukhar Mukatay of Kazakhstan and Purevsuren Ulziisaikhan of Mongolia without dropping a single point.
She defeated Yuliia Leskovets of Ukraine 6-2 in the match she played in the final round. Reetika earned a silver medal in the three-wrestler 72kg tournament after defeating Italy's Dalma Caneva 7-0 but losing 0-4 to Kazakhstan's Zhamila Bakbergenova.
Neelam was eliminated from the 50 kg division after a humiliating loss by fall against Ziqi Feng of China. The Chinese later lost their semifinal match, ruining Neelam's prospects of returning to the competition via repechage.