India bags three medals at World Wrestling Championship

Poland, November 28: Indian wrestlers making their country proud in the international sports arena bagged three medals at the U-23 World Wrestling Championship which was held in Poland. Notably, Bajrang Punia, Vinod Kumar and Ritu Phogat clinched silver medals at the event.

 

Asian champion Bajrang Punia settled for a silver medal after losing at the summit clash by 6-17 to Russian grappler Kuular in the 65kg category. While Vinod Kumar lost to American Richard Lewis by 1-3 and had to settle for the silver medal at the event.

Earlier in the semifinal bout, Bajrang defeated Iran's Yones Aliakbar 9-7 and Vinod posted a 2-1 win over a Japanese wrestler in the last-four stage of 70kg to make the gold medal rounds. Meanwhile, wrestler Ritu Phogat also clinched the silver medal in the 48kg category.

The 23-year-old Ritu, who had won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championship last year, lost against Turkish Wrestler Demirhan in the gold medal bout to settle for a silver. Ritu Phogat defeated Bulgarian Wrestler Selishka 4-2 points before defeating Chinese Wrestler Jiang Zhu 4-3 points in the semifinal. Ritu had also won the National championships in Indore this month. She also won a bronze medal at the Asian Championships in May this year.