Trying as dominant as ever, Vinesh Phogat on Saturday locked Paris Olympics quota in ladies’s 50kg class, reaching the ultimate on the Asian Olympic Qualifier with out conceding a single level in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on Saturday. It’s India’s second quota place for the Paris Video games as Antim Panghal had earned a quota within the 53kg class together with her bronze medal profitable present on the World Championships final yr.
The 29-year-old Vinesh has now secured her third straight Olympic quota, having featured in Rio Video games (2016) and in Tokyo (2020) earlier.
Vinesh, who was a distinguished face of protest towards former WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, dished out a powerful efficiency, demolishing her opponents one after the other.
As is her wont, Vinesh appeared for that one alternative to subdue Miran Cheon in her opening bout and grabbed it after measuring her Korean rival for about 30 seconds.
As soon as she grabbed Cheon and pushed her down for a take down, the bout led to a jiffy, in a single minute and 39 seconds.
It was tough to wriggle out of Vinesh’s sturdy maintain. The Indian employed intestine wrench transfer thrice and combined that with one ‘expose’ to complete the bout.
The subsequent bout lasted a mere 67 seconds. Cambodia’s Smanang Dit was a simple prey. Vinesh pinned her very quickly to maneuver to the ladies’s 50kg semifinal.
The celebrated Indian confronted some resistance from 19-year-old Kazakh wrestler Laura Ganikyzy within the semifinals however she used all her expertise to foil the assaults employed by her youthful rival.
Twice Laura went for left-leg assaults however Vinesh scored on counter and led 4-0 by the top of the primary interval. This was the primary time Vinesh was pushed to the second interval on this match.
As soon as Vinesh acquired maintain of Laura, she had no downside in using consecutive intestine wrench strikes to complete the bout.
Vinesh was competing within the 50kg class after profitable the choice trials.
The finalists at this competitors are being awarded quota locations for the 2024 Summer time Olympics.
India can safe three extra quotas by way of Anshu Malik (57kg), Mansi Ahlawat (62kg) and Reetika (76kg) as they’ve additionally reached the semifinals of their respective classes.
The 2021 World Championship silver medallist Anshu had no downside whereas placing it throughout Kyrgyzstan’s Kalmira Bilimbekova within the quarterfinal, profitable by technical superiority.
The U23 world champion Reetika didn’t have to interrupt a lot sweat in outclassing Eunju Hwang.
She received the primary spherical by technical superiority because the Korean had no reply to Reetika’s class and acquired the same win underneath her belt towards Mongolia’s Davaanasan Enkh Amar.
Within the last group bout towards China’s Juang Wang, Reetika raced to a 8-0 lead however the Chinese language fought again and logged six straight factors.
She effected one other transfer on the dying moments however a lot to the aid of the Indian camp, that time was not awarded as a result of it got here on the finish of the stipulated time.
Mansi additionally made it to last-four as she wanted to win only one bout. Up towards Kazakhstan’s Irina Kuznetsova, she emerged a 6-4 winner.
The one Indian wrestler who couldn’t attain semifinals was Nisha Dahiya (68kg).
Nisha needed to work arduous for her opening win towards Sol Gum Pak from North Korea. The Indian had raced to a 5-0 lead and maintained that until the primary interval, however the Korean put the stress again on her rival with a powerful resistance.
Instantly in the beginning of the second interval, Pak efficiently acquired a take-down transfer to get on to the scoreboard. Nevertheless, Nisha stored pushing Pak out to increase her lead and ultimately received 8-3.
Already exhausted, Nisha was outclassed by native favorite Meerim Zhumanazarova in spherical 2, wherein she suffered a heavy defeat.
After falling behind 1-9, she was pinned by Meerim. Nisha might hardly make use of any attacking transfer, and was principally concerned in standing wrestling.
Within the must-win spherical 3, Nisha overpowered Kazakhstan’s Yelena Shalygina however with Meerim dropping her last group bout, Nisha didn’t have sufficient factors to remain in top-four.
The final probability to win the Paris Video games quota might be on the World Qualifiers in Turkey from Might 9.
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