Warsaw:
Star India grappler Vinesh Phogat has bagged her third consecutive gold in women's 53kg category after winning the Poland Open wrestling tournament in Warsaw. The 24-year-old prevailed 3-2 over local wrestler Roksana in the final of the competition. Vinesh had earlier beaten Sofia Mattson of Sweden, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist, in the quarterfinals of this international tournament. The top Indian woman wrestler had stood atop the podium at Grand Prix of Spain and at the Yasar Dogu International at Istanbul, Turkey last month. Former national hockey captain Viren Rasquinha, who is also involved with Olympic Gold Quest, congratulated Vinesh on her success.
"Congrats @Phogat_Vinesh as she wins the gold medal beating the local girl 3-2 in the final of the Poland Open. This is Vinesh's 3rd consecutive gold in 53kgs after Spain and Turkey. Well done @Media_SAI, #TOPS and #WFI. We are proud to support this champion Vinesh @OGQ_India," Rasquinha, who heads the Olympic Gold Quest as its CEO, wrote on his twitter page.
Earlier in the year, Vinesh clinched a bronze in her new 53kg weight category at the Asian Wrestling Championships in Xian, China. Vinesh has moved up to a higher category from 50kg in which she had won a gold in the Jakarta Asian Games after rejigging of weight classes by the world governing body for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She had competed in 53kg at the UWW Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov tourney in Bulgaria last month and secured a silver medal. Vinesh had a disappointing start as she lost to Mayu Mukaida of Japan, who came through the qualification round. The Japanese were declared a 10-0 winner in a victory by technical superiority verdict.
But since her opponent reached the final, Vinesh featured in the repechage round where she beat Jo Cih Chiu of Taipei in a 6-0 victory by fall verdict. In the bronze medal play-off, Vinesh beat Qianyu Pang of China 8-1. In the women's 72kg category, Kiran crashed out in the quarterfinals as she lost 4-7 on points at the hands of Zhamila Bakbergenova of Kazakhstan.
