On Tuesday, in the women’s 55kg category, Pinki who reached the bronze medal round lost to Jenna Rose Burkert of the USA 2-5 and failed to break the duck. The Indian began defensively of which the American took advantage and looked better on the mat all through the game.

After conceding two points, Pinki tried to go on the offensive but Jenna countered well and took her lead to 5. The hardworking Pinki managed to bag two points in the last minute.

Earlier in her semi-final bout, Pinki, the 2020 Asian champion nearly pinned Nina Hemmer of Germany before losing 6-8 thus missing the chance to become the first Indian woman to enter a World final. On Monday, the Haryana wrestler pinned Aisha Ualishan of Kazakhstan 4-1 in the quarterfinal match and mauled Kim Soyeon of Korea 5-0 in the qualification round.

In women’s 76-kg category, Kiran lost to Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Adeline Maria Gray of the USA via fall, 0-5 and is hoping to advance with a win in her repechage match against Aysegul Ozbege of Turkey to be held on Wednesday.

The Indian got a direct fight in the quarterfinals where she beat Kim Cholee of South Korea VPO, 6-0.
In women’s 50kg category quarterfinals, Nadezhda Sokolova of Russia swarmed Hanny Kumari by technical Superiority VSU, 10-0. In the round of eight, Hanny got past Cheon Miran of South Korea by VPO1, 9 – 2

Pooja Jatt in women’s 53kg category lost in first round to Akari Fujinami of Japan by VSU, 11 – 0 and is waiting for a repechage match on Wednesday against Luisa Elizabeth Valverde Melendres of Ecuador while in women’s 65-kg category, Bhateri lost in the qualification round to Dinara Kudaeva Salikhova of Russia by VPO, 8-0.

Men grapplers draw a blank

Meanwhile, 7 out of 10 men grapplers failed to win a single bout. Ravinder and Rohit gave hopes but lost their bronze medal bouts. In the men’s 65-kg category, Rohit lost his bronze medal round against Tulga Tumur Ochir of Mongolia by fall, 10-4 and in 61-kg category, Arsen Harutyunyan of Armenia ousted Ravinder by VSU, 10–0. In the repechage, Ravinder was sensational when he bounced back after trailing 0-8 against Georgi Valentinov Vangelov of Bulgaria to win by VFA, 2 – 8. Even though he missed a medal, the Indian impressed all but needed to work on his defence.

In the 2019 edition in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, Indian men won four medals including one silver and three bronze medals. Heavyweights like Tokyo Olympic silver medallist Ravi Dahiya and bronze medallist Bajrang Punia, Deepak Punia and Rahul Aware and woman wrestler Vinesh Phogat skipped the meet due to various reasons including injuries.

Deepak won a silver, while Rahul, Bajrang and Ravi won bronze medal each in 2019 and Vinesh won bronze in women’s 53 kg category.

On Tuesday in women’s 62-kg category Sangeeta Phogat lost her pre-quarterfinal bout to Lais Nunes De Oliveira via points 4-6 as her defence crumbled on counter attacks. However, in the qualification round, the Indian edged Luisa Helga Gerda Niemesch of Germany by VPO1, 5 – 2

In other categories also, Indians could not muster any defence.

Sushil lost in 70-kg qualification round 2-5 to Zurabi Iakobishvili of Georgia after failing to make any good moves against stronger-looking rivals. In the men’s 97-kg category, Satywart Kadian was beaten by Seo Minwon of South Korea by VPO1, 6 – 6 in the qualification round on criteria. He scored all his points on push out while the Korean had two 2-pointers.

In men’s 57-kg round of eight bout, Suleyman Atli of Turkey thrashed Pankaj by VSU, 10 – 0 and in the qualification round, Pankaj prevailed over Levan Metreveli Vartanov of Spain by VPO1, 4 – 3. In the men’s 79kg category, Bat Erdene Byambasuren of Mongolia defeated Baliyan Gourav and in 92-kg Osman Nurmagomedov of Azerbaijan overwhelmed Pruthviraj Babasaheb Patil by VSU, 10 – 0.