After a dominant start to her campaign, India’s biggest medal hope Vinesh Phogat lost to Mayu Mukaida of Japan in her Eighth Final match at the World Championships on Tuesday, 17 September.
The sixth-ranked Indian wrestler had earlier defeated Olympic bronze medallist Sofia Mattsson 13-0 in her opening bout of the 53kg category in Kazakhstan.
Phogat can now only hope that her two-time world champion opponent Mukaida reaches the final, which will give her a second chance at winning her maiden World Championships medal via repechage.
A 55kg regular, Mukaida dropped a weight category to compete in an Olympic category. She won a World Championship gold in the 55 kg event last year and is now vying for her third medal at the event. In April, Mukaida won a silver at the Asian Championships.
Vinesh had recently beaten Sofia, a six-time World Championship medal winner, on the way to the Poland Open title-win last month. The 29-year-old Sofia won the last of her fourth European Championship gold medal in 2016. She is ranked five in the world in 55kg, which is a non-Olympic category.
Twenty-five-year-old Vinesh moved up from the 50kg to the 53kg category at the start of the season and it has been a fruitful year for her with five finals and three gold medals at Yasar Dogu, Grand Prix of Spain and Poland Open.
No Indian woman has ever won a gold at the Worlds and Vinesh, though unseeded, is India’s best bet this time round. The top 6 wrestlers in each category also book a qualifying spot for the Tokyo Olympics.
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