Reetika suffers meltdown to end with silver

Amman: Young Indian wrestler Reetika Hooda blew away a 6-2 lead, conceding four points in the last 10 seconds of the women’s 76kg final, to settle for a silver medal at the Asian Championship while Mansi Lather and Muskan won bronze here on Thursday.

The 22-year-old Reetika, who became first Indian female wrestler to be crowned U23 world champion and youngest to qualify for the Olympics, outclassed Japan’s Nodoka Yamamoto and Korea’s Seoyeon Jeong on her way to the gold medal bout.

The summit clash was a repeat of Paris Olympics quarterfinal against Kyrgyzstan’s Aiperi Medet Kyzy. Reetika employed an aggressive strategy, going for double leg attacks. She lost initial points on counter attack but made it 2-2 with a takedown. In the second period, she made a move at the edge of the circle to take a 4-2 lead and consolidated it with another two-pointer.

The gold was within the reach but another aggressive move -- a double leg attack -- cost Reetika, who again lost point of counterattack. The two-pointer came in last 2 seconds, make it 6-6 in favour of the Kyrgyz on criteria.

First up for Reetika was Jeong, who she beat by technical superiority. She began the scoring with a take-down move and followed that up with a single-leg attack to add two more to her kitty. Reetika ended the bout in a jiffy when she got hold of the Korean’’s legs and employed the ‘fitley’ move.

Adding to India’s tally were Mansi and Muskan.

In 68kg, Mansi Lather made a strong start, winning her opening bout against South Korea’s Sheng Feng Cai by technical superiority and got a walk over from Japanese Ami Ishii.

In her fight for bronze with Irina Kazyulina, the Indian teenager was leading comfortably 4-0 when the Kazakh made a move, looking for pin. Mansi was inches away from getting pinned but used her immense strength to wriggle out of precarious position and quickly turned the tables to win by technical superiority.

Muskan (59kg)was up against Mongolia’s Altjin Togtokh in the bronze playoff. She gradually got a grip over the contest,

winning 4-0.