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Komal wins U23 world bronze as Amruta Pujari pins her way into the 72kg final
The 59kg wrestler beat Kazakhstan's Viktoriia Khusainova 7-2 for bronze in Las Vegas. Pujari, from Solapur, won both her bouts by fall and meets Ukraine's Iryna Zablotska for gold.
Key points
- Komal won the women's 59kg bronze with a 7-2 win over Kazakhstan's Viktoriia Khusainova.
- Amruta Pujari reached the 72kg final with two wins by fall.
- Visa problems kept India out of four women's and five Greco-Roman weight classes.
Komal won India a bronze medal in the women’s 59kg category at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, and Amruta Pujari will wrestle for gold after pinning both of her opponents on the way to the 72kg final.
Komal’s day started with a narrow escape. She drew 1-1 with Canada’s Ella Finding and went through on criteria, then beat Moldova’s Madalina Prisacari 8-3 to reach the semi-finals. There she was outclassed by Ukraine’s Alina Filipovych, who won by technical superiority, but she recovered to beat Kazakhstan’s Viktoriia Khusainova 7-2 in the bronze-medal bout.
Pujari, who comes from Solapur in Maharashtra, was ahead 7-1 when she pinned Kazakhstan’s Sabyrzhanova, and led 10-8 against China’s Wenjin Qiu in the semi-final before finishing that bout by fall too. She faces Ukraine’s Iryna Zablotska in the final.
Two more Indians are still in the hunt for bronze through the repechage. Sweety, at 53kg, lost 11-2 in the quarter-finals to Cristelle Rodriguez Dobler, whose run to the final gave her a second chance against China’s Xiaptong Zeng. Vaishnavi Patil, beaten by technical superiority by Russia’s Ekaterina Koshkina in the 65kg quarter-finals, meets Japan’s Haruka Kobaru. Diksha Malik finished fifth at 76kg.
Komal’s medal follows Vishvajit More’s silver in Greco-Roman 55kg earlier in the championships. India’s tally could have been bigger: visa problems meant the team had no wrestlers in the women’s 50kg, 55kg, 57kg and 62kg categories, or in five Greco-Roman weight classes.