Vinesh Phogat creates history, becomes first Indian woman to win two medals at World Wrestling Championships

Ace Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat became the first Indian woman to win a second medal at the World Wrestling Championships by bagging a bronze medal in the ongoing edition.

She beat Emma Jonna Malmgren 8-0 of Sweden to finish third in the 53kg category. This was Vinesh Phogat's second bronze medal with her first coming in the 2019 edition at Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.

Phogat made a remarkable comeback after losing her first-round bout to Khulan Batkhuyag of Mongolia, the 2022 Asian Championships silver medallist. The celebrated Indian grappler never got going in her opening match.

Batkhuyag made her opponent look all at sea and pinned her to the mat to score four points, ousting the Indian in the first round.

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Vinesh Phogat's road to bronze medal

Vinesh, a triple Commonwealth Games champion, made it to the repechage round after Batkhuyag reached the final.

In the repechage round, she first beat Zhuldyz Eshimova of Kazakhstan in a Victory by fall (4-0). The Indian then won the next bout after an injury to her opponent Leyla Gurbanova of Azerbaijan gave her a walkover to help her progress to the next round.

In the bronze medal bout, Vinesh Phogat played like a true champion to storm into the history books.

Elsewhere, in the women's 57kg category, 2021 world bronze medalist Sarita Mor won her opening bout 4-2 against world U-23 bronze medalist Hannah Taylor of Canada. Sarita then lost to Anhelina Lysak of Poland 0-7.

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Read: "My immediate goals are to win gold medals at the World Championship and the Asian Games" - Ace Indian wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya

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Meanwhile, Mansi Ahlawat was eliminated after her defeat to Jowita Maria Wrzesien of Poland 3-5 in the 59kg quarter-final. The Indian was out of repechage contention after Maria Wrzesien lost in the semi-finals.

The 2022 World Wrestling Championships began in Belgrade, Serbia, on September 10 and will culminate on September 18.

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