Vinesh Phogat enters final; silver for Sarita Mor and bronze for Kuldeep Malik in Matteo Pelicone wrestling event

New Delhi: Vinesh Phogat put herself in contention for a second consecutive gold by reaching the 53kg final in a jiffy while Sarita Mor settled for a silver medal at the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series event. Greco-Roman wrestler Kuldeep Malik bagged a bronze. In her four bouts, Vinesh had to wrestle only twice as she got walkovers in the other two on Saturday. And in the two bouts that she fought, Vinesh won both by pinning her rivals — first her compatriot Nandini Bajirao Saolkhe in the first round and then Canadian Samantha Leigh Stewart in the semi-final, which lasted a mere 42 seconds. She did not have to move a sinew in the second round against Kazakhstan’s Tatyana Akhmetova Amanzhol and Ecuador’s Luisa Elizabeth as they forfeited their bouts against the Indian due to their respective injuries. Vinesh came into the competition after wining a gold in Kiev, Ukraine. Indian grapplers secured three medals in the Greco-Roman category on Friday, taking the country’s tally to five medals. Asian champion Sarita beat Kazakhstan’s Altynay Satylgan 4-1 in the women’s 57kg quarter-finals and then defeated Emma Tissina by a fall in the semi-finals to assure herself of a silver. Later, Sarita went down to 2-4 to to Giullia Penalber of Bulgaria in the title bout to settle for the silver. The other Indian in the same weight category, Anshu Malik lost 7-10 to Penalber in the semi-finals. She forfeited her bronze medal contest against Italy’s Francesca Indelicato due to an injury. Malik had won a silver medal in the event last year. In the 68kg category, Nisha bowed out in the qualifiers after losing 3-10 to Rio 2016 Olympian Mimi Hristova of Bulgaria. The Indian then lost 2-3 to American Alexandria Junis Glaude in the repechage contest. In the 76kg category, 2016 Olympic bronze medallist Elmira Syzdykova of Kazakhstan defeated India’s Kiran 10-3 in the quarter-final. Among Indian male grapplers, Kuldeep Malik defeated 2014 world champion Chingiz Labazanov of Russia 10-9 to secure the bronze medal. Kuldeep had earlier lost his opening round match to reigning European champion Selcuk Can of Turkey. Last year’s gold medallist here, Gurpreet Singh, suffered a shock 11-12 loss in the 82kg qualification match against Richard Perkins of USA. The other Indian in the same weight category, Harpreet Singh, also crashed out in the qualification round, losing by a fall against Turkey’s Salih Aydin.