U17 World Wrestling C'ships: Four Indian women advance to gold medal matches

Indian women's freestyle wrestlers had an outstanding start to the U17 World Wrestling Championships as four of the five wrestlers reached the finals on the opening day in Athens, Greece, on Wednesday.

All four wrestlers, Rachana (43 Kg), Moni (57 Kg), Ashvini Vishnoi (65 Kg), and Kajal (73 Kg), have reached the final four with dominating victories in their preliminary round bouts.

Dominant show from Indian wrestlers

Kajal, the reigning 69 Kg U17 World Champion, will be in the U17 final for the second consecutive edition, and she did that by winning three of her four bouts of the day on a pinfall decision.

Even in the fourth bout, she registered a dominant technical superiority 11-0 win against Ella Jo Palillo of the USA in the semis, setting up a title clash with China's Wenjin Qiu on Thursday.

On the other hand, Ashvini started her day with two wins on technical superiority and followed it with a pinfall victory in the quarterfinal and then a 7-0 win against Lili Ermokhina in the semis.

Asian U17 Champion Moni also pinned her Romanian opponent in the quarterfinal and then had another comfortable 7-0 win against Alina Baroeva in the semi-final.

Meanwhile, Rachana clinched a technical superiority win against Mareim Abdelaal of Egypt in her quarterfinal bout but had to fight hard to register a 1-1 win on criteria against Madison Healey of the USA in semis.

Komal Verma (49 Kg) was the only Indian wrestler of the day who didn't reach the final. But, she will also have a second chance at the bronze medal via repachage as her opponent, Morgan Turner of the USA, reached the final.