Ufa (Russia), Aug 19: Outclassed in the final, Bipasha (76kg) had to be content with a silver medal but a tenacious Sanju Devi kept her cool and relied on her stamina to secure a place in 62kg title clash at the Junior Wrestling World Championships, here on Thursday.
Simran (50kg) and Sito (55kg) won bronze medals to add to India’s tally but Arju forfeited her 68kg bronze play-off due to injury.
Bhateri also made her way into the 65kg final while Saneh will fight for bronze after losing her 62kg semifinal.
Bipasha lost her final by technical superiority to America’s Kylie Renee Welker, who executed ‘fitley’ move to finish the bout quickly.
Sanju emerged star of the day for India. She may not look athletic but was quick with her moves and reflexes as she beat Germany’s Lusia Schrel 5-2 and then erased a 0-3 deficit to edge past Croatia’s Iva Geric 4-3 in the quarterfinals.
In the semifinal too she was down 0-5 but relied on her supreme stamina to win 8-5 against Azerbaijan’s Birgul Soltanova, who lost a bit of steam towards the end and blew away her lead. She will fight for gold against Russia’s Alina Kasabieva.
Also moving to the final was Bhateri, who had just two bouts to win in 65kg to make the final. She beat Tunisia’s Jlassi Khadija and Romania’s Amina Roxana Capezan. She is now up against Irina Ringaci from Moldova. (PTI)
