Geeta Phogat lost in the repechage round as all four female grapplers in the fray went down in their respective weight categories on the fourth day of the World Wrestling Championships
Las Vegas: With success continuing to elude the Indian contingent, Geeta Phogat lost in the repechage round as all four female grapplers in the fray went down in their respective weight categories on the fourth day of the World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas..
Geeta, who was competing in the 58kg category, was outclassed 0-10 by Kaori Icho of Japan in the qualification round. But the Haryana girl got a chance to compete for a bronze medal in the repechage after Icho reached the final.
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Geeta, however, ran into another tough opponent in Elif Jale Yesilirmak of Turkey, going down 0-10. Elif eventually finished with a bronze medal.
Anita had a promising start in the 63kg category, thrashing Nadiia Mushka Sementsova 9-1 in the first round. But she was defeated 2-5 by Sandra Viviana Roa Velandia of Colombia in the next round.
Lalita (55kg) and Nikki (75kg) - the other Indians in action on the day -- crashed out of the pre-quarterfinals after losing to Japanese opponents in their respective categories.
Lalita was beaten 0-7 by Anri Kimura while Nikki lost by a similar margin to Chiaki Iijima.
"It was always going to be a difficult bout. She is one of the best wrestlers in the world. I tried my best to wrestle according to the tactics I had planned but it did not work as she was too fast with her double-leg attack and did not really give me any time to recover," Geeta said after the repechage on Thursday.
"I thought I would be better in the repechage round having analysed my mistakes against the Japanese. But it just was not meant to be. I gave it my all but the opponent seemed to read my tactics well. There are lots of lessons that I will be taking with me from here and I will be working very hard on rectifying my mistakes," she added.
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