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Seema, Pooja bag bronze medals
Sarita Mor scripted a sensational comeback, reeling off nine straight points, to retain her Asian Championship title in 59kg category, while Seema Bisla (50kg) and Pooja (76kg) settled for bronze medals, at the continental Championships, in Almaty, on Thursday.
Sarita, who won gold at the 2020 championships in New Delhi, trailed 1-7 after a botched challenge but turned it around with a tremendous fightback against Mongolia's Shoovdor Baatarjav in the final.
Attempting a move at 1-3 on the edge of the mat, Sarita lost her balance, allowing her opponent to get a point. However, the Mongolian's coach challenged the call to earn her ward four.
From there on, there was no stopping Sarita. She effected a take-down, following it up with an expose and then another take down on the edge of the circle to make it 7-7.
At that juncture, with time running out, the Mongolian camp challenged the call and lost that to give an extra point to Sarita, who won 10-7.
Sarita had lost her opening bout to the same Mongolian by a 4-5 margin but came back strongly in the next against Kazakhstan's Diana Kayumova, winning by technical superiority in the first period.
The lanky Kazkah had good reach but Sarita was agile and aggressive. After earning a passivity point, Sarita unleashed a flurry of moves, starting with a take-down and followed that up with a gut-wrench and a couple of expose moves.
Against Kyrgyzstan's Nuraida Anarkulova in the semi-final, Sarita was again aggressive from the beginning and finished the bout in a jiffy with quick expose moves after getting hold of her opponent.
In the 50kg competition, Seema had a terrible start as she lost her opening bout by fall to Kazakshtan's Valentina Ivanovna but made a strong comeback in the next round against Mongolian Anudari Nandintsetseg.
Trailing 0-2, Seema got on board with a passivity point and a take-down. She never looked back after that winning more points by employing gut-wrench and eventually won 7-3.
She faced a stiff challenge from Uzbekistan's Jasmina Immaeva in the semi-final, which she lost 2-3. The Indian then beat Taipei's Yung Hsun Lin by technical superiority to win the bronze medal.
In 76 kg, Pooja won her first bout 2-0 as Korea’s Seoyeon Jeong was too passive and followed that up with a victory by fall against Uzbekistan's Ozoda Zaripboeva.
Mostly earning points through right-leg attacks, Pooja found a move -- again a right-leg attack -- in the beginning of the second period which led her to pinning her rival.
She, though, was no match for Elmira Syzdykova in the semi-finals as the
Kazak pinned her with a stunning move.
Pooja clinched the bronze after winning 5-2 against Korea's Seyeon Jeong.
In the 68kg, Nisha was ousted after losing both her bouts by fall.
Despite dominating a major part of her second round bout that she led 6-0 with right leg attacks, Nisha lost to the Korean Eun Sun Jeong. She had lost her first round to Mongolia's Delgermaa Enkhsaikhan.