Indian wrestlers once again put up a dominating show winning top honours at the Grand Prix of Spain. Top wrestler Vinesh Phogat clinched her first gold medal since shifting to the new 53 kg category, whereas Divya Kakran too claimed the top honours in the 68 kg category.
This was only the third tournament for Vinesh in the new category. She is one of India’s medal hopefuls for the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Games.
Competing in the eight-wrestler 53kg draw, Vinesh defeated Justina Benites of Peru and Nina Minkenova of Russia with reasonable comfort. She then went on to get the better of her Dutch rival Jessica Blaszka in the final.
India's top wrestler Vinesh Phogat won her first gold medal after shifting to 53kg category while Divya Kakran claimed the top honours in the 68kg category at the Grand Prix of Spain. pic.twitter.com/NIQPbSOiXe
— Doordarshan Sports (@ddsportschannel) July 7, 2019
The 24-year-old gold medal winner at the Jakarta Asian Games didn’t gave away a single point against Justina and Nina. However, Jessica did put up a tough fight, stealing six points from the Indian in the finals. Nonetheless, Vinesh prevailed in the end.
She had earlier competed in Asian Championship and Dan Kolov in the 53kg category. While the Haryana-based wrestler won a bronze, she bettered her performance to win silver in the latter.
Asian Games bronze medallist Divya also stood at the top of the podium, having herself lost merely four points in the entire campaign.
The Indian grappler thumped Agnieszka Wieszczek-Kordus of Poland in the finals to clinch top honours.
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Pooja Dhanda, a World Championship bronze medallist, had to satisfy herself with a silver medal in the 57kg category after she lost out to Veronika Chumikova of Russia in the title clash.
She was joined by the likes of Seema (50kg), Kiran (76kg), and Manju Kumari who were beaten in the finals by Iwona Matkowska of Poland, Ksennia Burakova and Liubov Ovcharova of Russia respectively to win silver.
Olympian Sakshi Malik opted out of the competition courtesy of a minor injury.
As a result of the victories, India ended the competition at second place with 130 points in the team championship, with Russia coming first with 165.
