Poland Ranking Series: Vinesh clinches 53kg freestyle gold

TIL Desk Sports/ Tokyo Olympic Games bound wrestler Vinesh Phogat won the women’s 53kg freestyle gold with an 8-0 win over Khrystyna Bereza of Ukraine at the Poland Ranking Series here on Friday. With less than 50 days to go for the Olympic Games to begin, Vinesh looked strong in defence and swift in attacks and counter-attacks.

The gold-winning effort of Vinesh is likely to improve her seeding in the 53kg freestyle event at the Olympics, to be held from July 23 to August 8. In the final match, Vinesh went up 2-0 in the opening 70 seconds of the bout. With less than two minutes on board, she led 4-0.

Khrystyna struggled to keep pace with Vinesh in the initial stages of the bout. As the match progressed, the Ukranian made some good moves but Vinesh was quick to wriggle out of the tricky situations. With less than two minutes to go for the long whistle, Vinesh unleashed another attack to increase the margin to 6-0.

Khrystyna tried to reduce the gap in the last 60 seconds of the match but was unsuccessful as Vinesh was in no mood to concede points. Vinesh made it 8-0 in the last 30 seconds of the contest to pocket the gold medal. Khrystyna settled for silver.