Vinesh Phoga clinched a bronze medal in the 53kg category at the World Wrestling Championships on Wednesday. She scripted history by becoming the first Indian woman to win two medals at the tournament.
The 28-year-old defeated Emma Jonna Malmgren of Sweden by 8-0.
Vinesh Phogat had earlier won a Bronze medal in the World Wrestling championships in 2019. She had defeated two-time medallist Maria Prevolaraki of Greece to clinch the Bronze. Vinesh then became the country's only fifth woman wrestler to win a medal at the Worlds, joining the list of players like Geeta & Babita Phogat, Alka Tomar, and Pooja Dhanda.
In the 2022 event, Vinesh made it to the bronze play-off via the repechage round after losing to Khulan Batkhuyag of Mongolia, the 2022 Asian championships silver medallist, in her first bout on Tuesday.
Vinesh, a triple Commonwealth Games champion, made it to the repechage round after Batkhuyag reached the final.
In the repechage round, Vinesh first beat Zhuldyz Eshimova of Kazakhstan in a Victory by Fall (4-0) decision and then won the next bout after injury to her opponent Leyla Gurbanova of Azerbaijan to advance to the bronze medal round.
Vinesh also showed dominance in the 2022 Commonwealth Games. She won all her three bouts in the nordic system. She defeated Sri Lanka’s Chamodya Keshani Maduravalage Don in the final bout.
(Inputs from PTI)
