Indian women wrestlers Sakshi and Vinesh qualifies for Rio Olympics in August. They secured the Olympic berths in respective weight divisions at the Second Olympic qualification tournament.
They qualified for Rio Olympics by virtue of reaching the finals of women’s 48kg and 58 kg respectively on the second day of competition. Vinesh started the competition trashing Natalya of Ukraine 10-0 before defeating France Julie-Martine 11-0 in the pre-quarter finals. She continued to dominate by beating Lee of Korea 11-1 in the quarter-final before Evin of Turkey in the semi-final to make the finals easily.
Sakshi who was a replacement for Geeta Phogat in the 58 kg did not disappoint as she defeated Garcia of Spain 10-0, followed by Kateryna of Romania 12-2 in the quarter-final and then beat China’s Lang Zang in a closely fought match to reach the finals and also secure an Olympic berth.
It was a disappointing day for other female Indian wrestlers as Lalita in 53 kg, Geetika Jakhar in 69 kg and Kiran in 75 kg all were knocked out of the tournament in the initial stages.
Lalita crashed in the qualification round by losing to Budu 2-4, Geetika was knocked out in the pre-quarter finals stage Mariama of USA 0-5 and Kiran was defeated by Zutova of Azerbjian 0-2 in the qualifiers.
This is last qualification competition event for Rio Olympics. India has secured six Olympic berths in wrestling so far.