Indian wrestler Pinki nearly pinned her German rival Nina Hemmer before losing the heart-stopping 55kg semi-final 6-8 to miss out on a histo...
Indian wrestler Pinki nearly pinned her German rival Nina Hemmer before losing the heart-stopping 55kg semi-final 6-8 to miss out on a historic final at the World Championship even as the country’s men’s freestyle squad drew a blank after Rohit’s defeat in the bronze medal playoff in Oslo, Norway on Monday.
In a fast-paced action-packed semi-final, Pinki trailed 0-4 after Hemmer effected a take-down move and followed that up with a quick gut wrench.
Pinki kept looking for her moves and found one from a right leg-attack, pushing the back of the German on the mat for two points.
She kept Hemmer in a tight grip and held her in that position for more than a minute but the referees were not convinced to give away a fall result.
After the breather, Pinki levelled the score and then took a 6-4 lead with consecutive take-downs but Hemmer again refused to throw in the towel and pulled off two more two-pointers to emerge winner.
No Indian woman wrestler has ever played a World Championship final.
Geeta Phogat (2012), Babita Phogat (2012), Pooja Dhanda (2018) and Vinesh Phogat (2019) are the only four Indian woman wrestlers to have won bronze medals at the World Championship.
Pinki can join that list if she wins her bronze playoff on...
