Belgrade, Nov 5: Indian wrestler Shivani Pawar finished with a silver after losing the U23 Worlds final to Emily Shilson of USA. Shivani succeeded in taking an early lead in the bout, but was pinned down by the junior world champion in the 50kg division bout here on Thursday.
The 23-year-old started her campaign with a thrilling win over Anastasiya Yonatava in the qualification, where she showed a remarkable comeback, from tailing 0-9 to winning the bout via fall, 4-9.
After her triumph, Shivani became the seventh Indian woman to win silver at the U23 World Championship.
Meanwhile, Anju bagged bronze after defeating Virginie Kaze Gascon of Canada by technical superiority in the 55kg bronze medal bout.
Earlier, she had gone down to Victoria Vaulina in the semifinal. Amidst all this, India still has the hope of bagging another medal, if Nisha Dahiya (65kg) is able to win a bronze medal later.
Earlier, she had won quarterfinal bouts by pinning down her opponents.
Meanwhile, the two-time Asian champion in the 72kg category, Divya Kakran suffered an early defeat in the 72kg qualification by Anastasiya Alpyeyeva of Ukraine 10-3.
Since Anastasiya reached the final, she gets a revival and will play the repechage round today. Divya will face Alexandra Zaitseva of Kazakhstan in the repechage. If she gets past Alexandra in the repechage, then she will contest for the bronze medal.
On the other hand, Nitika (57kg) and Radhika (62g) are the two other Indian women who will compete in the repechage round after suffering a loss in the quarterfinal with their opponent marched to the finals.
Meanwhile, the Men’s Freestyle qualification bouts begin today. In the 57kg qualification, Saurabh Madhukar will face Ramaz Turmanidze of Georgia in the qualification.
Parvinder(65kg) will take on Leon Gerstenberger (Germany) and Naveen will begin her campaign with 70kg qualification against Georgian opponent Giorgi Elbakidze.
In the 79kg, Vicky will begin his challenge against Bakhtiar Savadkouhi of Iran while Sahil will go up against Richard Phillip of Canada. (UNI)
