Shruti, Saarika and Kaajal lock semifinal places in the U20 World Championships

Samokov (Bulgaria), Aug 21 (PTI) Continuing India's impressive run in the women's event of the U20 World Wrestling Championships, Shruti, Saarika and Kaajal locked their places in the semifinals of their respective weight categories, here on Thursday.

Also making the semifinal stage was Greco Roman wrestler Suraj in the 60kg category, but Prince (82kg) lost in the quarterfinals.

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.

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.

She will be up against Ukraine's Anastasia Polska.

In the 72kg, Kaajal 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.

She now faces American wrestler Jasmine Dolores Robinson for a place in the gold medal bout.

Reena (55kg) and Priya (76kg) had reached the 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 DDV