Belgrade (Agencies): Nisha Dahiya missed out on a World Championship medal as she lost to former world champion Linda Morais of Canada in the women’s 68kg bronze play-off at the Wrestling Worlds in Belgrade on Thursday.
The 24-year-old Nisha, who won a bronze in the U-23 World Championships in 65kg last year, lost to Morais who took the bronze in a victory by fall (VFA) verdict.
Nisha got off to a fine start and notched up a four-pointer inside the opening 30 seconds, but Morais worked her way back into the bout. She halved the deficit before trapping Nisha in a double ankle hold and sealing the win via pin.
Nisha knew she was in trouble the second Morais worked the leg-lock and tapped out immediately. The Indian held on to her right knee, which was already strapped, and received medical attention on the mat before gingerly limping away.
Nisha made headlines last year when she was mistaken for a wrestler of the same name, who was killed in Sonipat.
Earlier, she had advanced to the semifinals with wins over Danute Domikaityte (victory by technical superiority; 11-0) of Lithuania, Adela Hanzlikcova (13-8) of Czech Republic and Sofiya Georgieva (victory by technical superiority; 11-0) of Bulgaria.
However in the semifinal, she lost to Ami Ishii of Japan 4-5 in a close bout. Nisha’s bronze play-off opponent Morais had come through the repechage round.
lsewhere, Vinesh Phogat had won India’s first medal in this championships with a bronze in women’s 53kg on Wednesday.
In the men’s 70kg freestyle events on Thursday, Naveen Malik lost to Taishi Narikuni of Japan 1-6 in 70kg though his opponent had no technical superiority.
Deepak beat Dan Or Tsesarsky of Israel 10-0 in a victory by technical superiority but lost to Bekzod Abdurkhmonov of Uzbekistan 2-13 in his next bout in 79kg. In 86kg, Sanjeet Kundu was ahead for most of his opening bout against Tarzan Maisuradze of Georgia but conceded a takedown with 34 seconds remaining to suffer a 4-4 loss.
In 125kg, Dinesh began with a qualification round 11-4 win over Catriel Pehuen Muriel of Argentina but was no match to Olympic silver medalist Geno Petriashvili of Georgia.
