India women's wrestling trials: Sakshi Malik, Pooja Dhanda fail to seal spots; door not yet closed

There were two huge surprises on Saturday at the women's wrestling trials being conducted by the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) in New Delhi as Olympic medallist Sakshi Malik (62kg) and World No. 5 Pooja Dhanda (57kg) lost in their respective categories and failed to make the cut.

While Sakshi, who bagged the bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, was stunned by two-time World Cadet champion Sonam Malik, Pooja was knocked out by promising junior grappler Anshu Malik.

Sonam and Anshu, both pitted against heavyweights in their opening rounds, showed tremendous grit and determination to win the trials. Sonam was, at one point, trailing 4-6 against Sakshi. However, she produced an incredible four-point throw with just seconds left on the clock to make it 10-10 and win on criteria of scoring the last point.

Also read: 6 grapplers in top-3 as Indians dominate Wrestling World Rankings

There were no other surprises through the day as Vinesh Phogat (53kg) and Divya Kakran (68kg) easily won their respective bouts and sealed their spots in the Indian team. Elsewhere, Nirmala Devi (50kg) and Kiran Godara (76kg) triumphed in their categories.

Complete Results of WOMEN TRIALS:

50kg
Quarterfinal Seema (RSPB) Beat Swati (Maharashtra) by 12-4
Semi-Finals Pinki (HAR) beat Sheetal (RAJ) by 6-2
Final – Nirmala Devi (HAR) beat Pinki (HAR) by 10 – 0

53kg
Semi-Finals Nandani (MAH) beat Manpreet (PUB)
Finals – Vinesh Phogat (Railways) beat Nandani (MAH) by 10-0

57kg
Quarterfinals Anshu Malik (HAR) beat Pooja Dhanda (HAR) By 3-1
Semi-Finals Mansi (HAR) beat Sarita Mor (RSPB) by 6-0
Anshu Malik (Haryana) beat Lalita (Railways)
Finals – Anshu Malik (HAR) beat Mansi Ahalawat (HAR) by 4-4

62kg
Quarterfinals Radhika df Navjot by 6-4
Semi-Finals Sonam (HAR) beats Sakshi Malik (RSPB) by 10–10
Finals – Sonam (HAR) beats Radhika (HAR)

68 kg
Quarterfinals Divya Kakran (RSPB) beat Nisha (HAR) by 5-2
Semi-Finals Divya Kakran (RSPB) df Anita Sheoran (HAR) by 4-0
Final – Divya Kakran (RSPB) Beats Suman (HAR)

76Kg
Semi – Final Gursharan Preet Kaur (PUB) beat Rani (H.P)
Kiran (HAR) beat Sudesh (HAR)
Final – Kiran (HAR) beat Gursharan Preet Kaur (PUB) by 6-3

Here is the full list of winners from today's trials:

50kg Nirmala Devi, 53kg Vinesh Phogat, 57kg Anshu Malik, 62kg Sonam Malik, 68kg Divya Kakran and 76kg Kiran Sihag

Sakshi, Pooja can still make it to Olympics

The trials were initially supposed to finalise the squad for India's campaign at the Asian Olympic qualifiers in March as well as those for the first ranking series of the event in Rome (January 15-18) and the Asian Championships in New Delhi (February 18-23). But now, it has been announced by the federation that only if they can win medals at these two events, will they represent India at the Asian Olympic qualifiers.

If the winners of the trials fail to win medals, fresh trials will be held before the event in March. This essentially means that both Sakshi and Pooja have a chance to make it to the Olympic qualifiers still.