Wrestler Vinesh Phogat wins gold at Rome Ranking event

Vinesh Phogat won her first gold of the 2020 season at Rome Ranking series event on January 17. With her dominant performance, the wrestler overcame two strong Chinese opponents to qualify for the finals. In the 53 kg finals, she overpowered Ecuador’s Luisa Elizabeth Valverde to clinch the gold. She never gave a chance to her opponent for attack, rattled her with shoulder pulls and won by a scoreline of 4-0. 

"Competing at an international event tests our training. It tells us whether we are  moving in the right direction or not. So this result shows we are on the right track since it’s a big year, it’s an Olympic year,” Vignesh told PTI after the win. 

However, she faced tough competition from Chinese opponents Lannuan Luo and Qianyu Pang. Luo was a strong opponent, who led 5-2 at the end of the first period but Vinesh came back with smart point-scoring moves in the second period to win the quarter-final with a score of 15-5. Against Pang in the semi-final, she took down the Chinese twice in each period and conceded points only towards the end, winning the bout 4-2. 

Vinesh, who shifted from the 50kg category to the 53kg category a year ago,  believes that her ground wrestling is still a work in progress. “We worked on strength and stamina in three months of off-season. The mat training began only in January. I mostly score points from standing wrestling and not much from ground wrestling. It’s not easy to change but compared to last year January, I am much better, so the coaches are happy,” she said. 

Another Indian wrestler, Anshu Malik won silver in the 57 kg category at the event. The 18-year-old dominated in all her bouts, beating American Jenna Rose Burkert, Grace Bullen of Norway, 2019 world champion from Canada Linda Morais before she made it to the finals. The teen sensation playing in her first international tournament at the senior level lost in the finals against Nigeria's Odunayo Adekuoroye. 

(Edited by Rekha Balakrishnan)

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