Young Indian wrestler Reetika Hooda blew away a 6-2 lead, conceding four points in the last 10 seconds of the women’s 76kg final, to settle for a silver medal at the Asian Wrestling Championships, while Mansi Lather and Muskan won bronze, here on Thursday.
The 22-year-old Reetika, who became the first Indian female wrestler to be crowned U23 World Champion and the youngest to qualify for the Olympics, outclassed Japan’s Nodoka Yamamoto and Korea’s Seoyeon Jeong on her way to the gold medal bout.
The summit clash was a repeat of the Paris Olympics quarterfinal against Kyrgyzstan’s Aiperi Medet Kyzy. Reetika employed an aggressive strategy, going for double-leg attacks.
She lost initial points on counterattack but made it 2-2 with a take-down. In the second period, she made a move at the edge of the circle to take a 4-2 lead and consolidated it with another two-pointer.
The gold was within reach, but another aggressive move, a double leg attack, cost Reetika, who again lost the point of counter-attack. The two-pointer came in the last 2 seconds, making it 6-6 in favour of the Kyrgyz on criteria.
Reetika had won a bronze at the 2023 Asian Championships in Astana.
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Adding to India’s tally were Mansi and Muskan.
In 68kg, Mansi Lather made a strong start, winning her opening bout against Korea’s Sheng Feng Cai by technical superiority and got a walk over from Japanese Ami Ishii.
She lost her semifinal 1-10 to eventual gold medallist China’s Zelu Li.
In her fight for bronze with Irina Kazyulina, the Indian teenager was leading comfortably 4-0 when the Kazakh made a move, looking for a pin. Mansi was inches away from getting pinned but used her immense strength to wriggle out of a precarious position and quickly turned the tables to win by technical superiority.
Muskan (59kg) easily beat the Philippines’ Arian G Carpio in her qualification bout but lost her quarterfinal to Japan’s Sakura Onishi. Up against Mongolia’s Altjin Togtokh in the bronze play-off, Muskan gradually got a grip over the contest, winning 4-0.
In 55kg, Nishu lost her qualification bout to Yuxuan Li, but the Chinese reached the final, opening the repechage route for the Indian.
Capitalising on the chance, Nishu beat Vietnam’s My Trang Nguyen to set up a bronze medal clash against Mongolia’s Otgontuya Bayanmunkh.
Ankush (50kg) also made it to the repechage round after losing the opening bout by technical superiority to Japan‘s Remina Yoshimoto, but conceded the match against Korea‘s Miran Cheon due to an injury.
