Sangeeta Phogat, one of the six wrestlers who protested against WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh at Jantar Mantar, on Saturday won a bronze medal in the non-Olympic 59kg category that featured six grapplers at the Hungary Ranking Series tournament here.
Sangeeta Phogat began with a crushing defeat by fall but bounced back with a win in her second bout. She lost her semifinal but won the bronze play-off 6-2 against young Hungarian Viktoria Borsos, the U-20 World Championship silver medallist.
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Sangeeta, who won the National Championship in the 62kg last year, began with a defeat by fall against American Jennifer Page Rogers. The contest lasted just 80 seconds with the American pulling away with a right leg attack that led to a take-down and multiple rolls. Eventually, the American got herself in a position to pin Sangeeta.
In her next bout against America’s Brenda Olivia Reyna, the Indian managed to shake off rust and was quick with her movement. She went into the break with a 4-2 lead and kept consolidating to finally win the bout by technical superiority. One win and one defeat in six-wrestler draw put her in the semifinal against Poland’s Magdalena Urszula Glodek.
Sangeeta Phogat initiated double-leg attacks but lacked power to convert those moves into points. Still she led twice, first 2-0 and then 4-2m but Glodek’s counter-attacking moves were good enough to race to a close 6-4 win. In the bronze play-off against local favourite Borsos, Sangeeta took the lead with a take-down move.
The Hungarian fought back to make it 2-2 but Sangeeta soon launched a fast and furious attack. Borsos put up a good defence but Sangeeta breached it for a 4-2 lead.
In the second period, Sangeeta did not lose a single point and added two to her kitty to take the bronze medal.
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