Wrestling World Championships: Pinki to compete for bronze, men’s freestyle team returns home medal-less

Indian wrestler Pinki will be carrying the country’s Wrestling World Championships medal hopes after the men’s freestyle team's poor showing in Oslo, Peru. Pinki nearly pinned her German rival Nina Hemmer before losing the thriller in the 55kg semi-final. She lost 6-8 to miss out on a historic final on Monday.

Pinki had looked strong in her early bouts but struggled initially against Hemmer. She trailed 0-4 after the German effected a take-down move and followed that up with a quick gut wrench.

The 2020 Asian Championship gold medalist kept looking for the opening. She found one from a right leg attack to get a takedown of two points in the semi-final of wrestling world championships.

Pinki kept Hemmer in a tight grip and held the German in that position long enough to be counted as a pin. However, the referees were not convinced to give away a “fall” result.

After a breather, Pinki leveled the score and then took a 6-4 lead with consecutive take-downs. However, Hemmer again refused to give up and snatched two points to advance to the wrestling world championships finals.

Meanwhile, the Indian freestyle team returned home without a medal. Ravinder (61kg) and Rohit (65kg) came closest to winning a bronze but missed out on the opportunity.

Sangeeta is making a comeback to competitive wrestling after three years following knee issues. She affected some splendid double leg attacks in both her bouts. However, she lost points on counter attacks and also ran out of steam against the Brazilian.

Wrestling World Championships Day 4 fixtures

50kg – Hanny Kumari. Vs M. Cheon (1/8)

53kg – Pooja Jatt vs Fujinami (1/8)

65kg – Bhateri vs Sali Kudaeva (Qual)

76kg – Kiran vs Kim (1/8)

The Wrestling World Championships bouts will begin at 2pm.