Wrestling World C'ships: Sarita, Divya disappoint, Neha misses bronze

Indian woman wrestler Neha Sharma lost in the bronze-medal match against Anatasia Blayvas of Germany to crash out of the UWW World Wrestling Championships on Tuesday in Belgrade, Serbia.

Competing in the non-Olympic 55 kg category, Neha defeated seventh seed Mariia Vynnyk of Ukraine 7-4 in the repechage round to set up the bronze-medal match.

Neha's loss means that no Olympic quotas or medals have been won in the ongoing World Championships where Indian wrestlers are playing as neutral athletes due to the suspension of the Wrestling Federation of India.

Among other wrestlers, Sarita Mor (57 kg), Divya Kakran (76 kg), Antim Kundu (65 kg), and Neelam (50 kg) also lost in their respective bouts to make it another blank day for India.

After defeating Betzabeth Colmenarez of Venezuela 6-1 in the first round, Sarita Mor lost to Nigeria's Odunayo Adekuoroye 4-6 in the pre-quarter-final.

Adekuoroye lost in the next round closing the door for Sarita Mor in the repechage round.

Commonwealth Games medalist Divya Kakran lost to world number 4 Justina Renay after beating Mehtap Gultekin of Turkey in the first round. Divya was tied on a score of 4-4 with Renay but Renay won by the virtue of scoring more technical points.

Antim Kundu stunned world number 2 Iva Geric of Croatia in the 65 kg category in the first round but lost to Chinese wrestler LIli in the next round to end her campaign.

Both Sarita (57kg) and Divya (76kg) lost their pre-quarterfinal bouts, while team-mates Antim Kundu (65kg) and Neelam (50kg) also met with a similar fate on Tuesday.

Neelam (50kg) too began on a positive note registering two quick victories -- against Maral Tangirbergenova of Kazakhstan (10-0) and Oksana Livach of Ukraine (6-4) -- but lost to world No.4 Feng Ziqi of China, who achieved a victory by fall in the quarterfinal.

Feng, too, went on to lose her semifinal bout, thus closing the repechage route for the Indian.

India will have four wrestlers in action tomorrow with the biggest hope of Olympic quota and medal lying on the shoulders of U20 World Champion Antim Panghal in the 53 kg category.

Manisha Bhanwala (62 kg) and Priyanka (68 kg) will be other two wrestlers battling in Olympic weight categories while Jyoti Berwal target a medal in 72 kg.