Jyoti moves into U-23 world wrestling semifinals

Budapest: India’s Jyoti stormed into the semifinals of the U-23 World Wrestling Championship here Wednesday with a 12-1 win over Moldova’s Maria Leorda in the women’s 50kg bout.

The youngster made it to the quarters with a 6-1 win over Belarus’ Tatsiana Yafremenka.

Standing between Jyoti and a berth in the final is Japan’s Kika Kagata. Jyoti is aiming to be the second Indian to reach the final of this prestigious completion this year, following men’s freestyle expert Ravinder who will compete in the summit showdown of 61kg.

While Jyoti dazzled on the mat, the rest of the women failed to emulate her. In 55kg, Rani Rana was blanked 0-6 by USA’s Dominique Olivia Parrish in the qualifiers while Suman put up better efforts in her qualifying bout against China’s Yingying Wang, only to go down 4-6.

In 59kg, Pooja Yadav’s campaign was cut short by top seed Tiana Grace Kennett, who dealt her a 6-2 blow.

Earlier, 22-year-old Ravinder pinned senior European champion Arsen Harutyunan of Armenia to storm into the final with a 4-3 win.

Ravinder had notched up a 12-1 win over Hungary’s Marcell Budai Kovacs in his opening bout and then followed it up with an 11-0 demolition of Russia’s Dinislam Takhtarov in the quarter-finals.

The Sonipat grappler had won gold at the South Asian Games in 2016 and also a bronze at the Cadet Asian Championships in 2014. PTI