ROME: Asian Championship gold medallist Sarita Mor assured herself of at least a silver by reaching the women’s 57kg final while India’s Greco Roman wrestlers Neeraj and Naveen bagged bronze medals in the UWW Ranking Series event Matteo Pellicone on Friday.
The 25-year-old Sarita, who won 59kg gold in Asian Championship in Delhi last year, won both her bouts in dominant fashion.
She first outplayed Kazakhstan’s Altynay Satylgan 4-1 in the quarterfinals and then followed it up with a victory by fall against Emma Tissinma, also a Kazkah.
Sarita will now fight for gold against Brazil’s Giullia Rodrigues, who prevented an all-India final by defeating Anshu Malik 10-7 in the other semifinal.
Talented Anshu Malik, who is making a transition from junior to senior level and also won a bronze in senior Asian championship in Delhi, scored a confident 11-6 win over Evelina Georgieva Nikolova from Bulgaria in the quarterfinals before losing to Giullia.
The 19-year-old is now up against Italy’s Francesca Indelicato in the bronze play-off.
In the 68kg, Nisha lost the chance to be in the medal round after losing her repechage contest 2-3 to America’s Alexandria Junis Glaude. 2018 Asian Games medallist Divya Kakran is not competing since she had lost the trials.
Kiran lost her 76kg quarterfinal to Elmira Syzdykova 3-10 to bow out of competition.
Much was expected from seasoned Greco Roman wrestler Harpreet Singh but he bowed out in the 82kg category, suffering a shock defeat by fall against Salih Aydin from Turkey.
However, both Naveen and Neeraj grabbed their chances to light up the Greco Roman camp.
Neeraj won bronze in the 63kg with a close 6-4 win over American Samuel Lee Jones, while Naveen bagged bronze in 130kg after scoring the last point in a 1-1 tie against Czech Republic’s Stepan David.
In 72kg, Kuldeep Malik will also fight for bronze against Russia’s Chingiz Labazanov.
He lost his bout 0-5 to Robert Attila Fritsch from Hungary.
Sunil Kumar (87kg) and Deepanshu (97kg) could not reach the medal round in their respective categories.