Indian women wrestlers had a great start to their campaign in the Zagreb Open Ranking Series finishing with double podium finish in the 50kg event. India’s Neelam Sirohi and Muskan won a silver and bronze medal respectively on Day 2 of the freestyle wrestling event held in Croatia. India finished with four medals that day.
In the finals match, Neelam lost to U23 World Champion Haruna Morikawa of Japan by 2-5, while Muskan won her bronze match in technical superiority over Poland’s Agata Walerzak. Earlier in the semi-final, Neelam defeated Muskan to book her spot in the final, and confirmed her third medal at a Ranking Series event, following two bronzes from last year.
Meanwhile, in the men’s event, India’s Vicky Hooda in 97Kg and Dinesh Dhankar in 125Kg secured bronze medals each. The victories got India a top-3 finish in the men’s freestyle event with a total of 118 criteria points. In the bronze medal match, Vicky defeated France’s Adlan Viskhanov by a score of 8-2, while Dinesh secured a decisive 0-7 win over Poland’s Kamil Kościółek.
At the end of Day 2, India added seven medals to their tally in the tournament including a gold, two silver and four bronze medals. With that, they sit in third place in the medals table behind teams like the USA and Iran.
The Indian team has a total of 41 contingent representing the nation across different weight categories. The Indian squad includes notable names such as two-time world medallist Antim Panghal and Manisha Bhanwala. Antim will take part in the 53kg category while Manisha in 57kg. Anjali Kachhawa joins Antim in the women’s 53kg category.
With Muskan and Neelam already made their podium finishes, the women wrestling unit also includes Jyoti (55kg), Manisha Bhanwala (57kg), Rajnita (59kg), Anjli (62kg), Bhagyashree Fand (62kg), Pulkit (65kg), Mansi Lather (68kg), Nisha (68kg), Diksha Malik (72kg), Jyoti Berwal (76kg), and Priya (76kg).
Meanwhile, the men’s freestyle category includes names like Aman (57 Kg), Ankush (57 Kg), Atish Todhkar (57 Kg), Sujeet (65 Kg), Vishal Kaliramana (65 Kg), Abhimanyou (70 Kg), Chander Mohan (74 Kg), Deepak (74 Kg), Amit (79 Kg), Mukul Dahiya (86 Kg), Sandeep Mann (86 Kg), Jointy Kumar (92 Kg), , Deepak Chahal (97 Kg), Mahendra Gaikwad (125 Kg).
India’s 41-member squad includes 16 men participating across nine freestyle weight categories, while 15 women wrestlers will compete in 10, while the Greco-Roman category will feature 10 Indian wrestlers. The Graco-Roman list includes names Lalit (55kg), Sahil (60kg), Chetan (63kg), Sachin Sahrawat (67kg), Kuldeep Malik (72kg), Aman (77kg), Prince (82kg), Rohit (87kg), Nitesh (97kg), Joginder Rathee (130kg).
