Kajal in line for gold; Shruti and Saarika to fight for bronze at U20 World Championships

Samokov (Bulgaria), Aug 21 (PTI) Young Indian wrestler Kajal produced two high-scoring wins to storm into the women's 72kg final while Shruti and Saarika will fight for bronze after losing their semifinals at the U20 World Wrestling Championships here Thursday.

Kajal, the 2024 Cadet world champion and reigning U20 Asian champion, logged double digit points twice in her three bouts.

She outwitted Emili Mihaylova Apostolova for a massive 15-4 win by technical superiority and put up another impressive show by winning her quarterfinal 7-0 against Kyrgyzstan's Kaiyrkul Sharshebaeva.

Up against American wrestler Jasmine Dolores Robinson, the Indian kept her high scoring moves to come out a 13-6 winner.

Competing in the lowest women's weight category of 50kg, Shruti began with a narrow 5-4 win over Violetta Biriukova in the pre-quarterfinals and followed up with a commanding 4-0 victory over Poland's Anna Yatskevych.

However, she was no match to Japan's Rina Ogawa and lost her semifinal by technical superiority.

Saarika was dominant in the 53kg weight class. She outclassed Sevval Cayir by technical superiority (12-2) and did not lose a single point in her quarterfinal against China's Tianyu Sun, winning 8-0.

However, Ukrainian Anastasia Polska defeated her by technical superiority in the semifinal.

Also making the semifinal stage was Greco Roman wrestler Suraj in the 60kg category. He lost by technical superiority to Armenia's Yurik Mkhitaryan and will now play for bronze medal.

Prince (82kg) is also alive in the bronze medal race through repechage route.

Reena (55kg) and Priya (76kg) had reached the women's final and will compete in their gold medal bouts later in the day.

Tapasya (57kg) has already won a gold and Srishti (68kg) a silver. PTI AT AT AH AH