Ritu Malik and Navjot Kaur managed to win just one bout each but their hopes of making the medal round at the World Championship were still alive as both of them progressed to the repechage round at Budapest on Tuesday.
If Ritu wants to win a bronze medal at the World Championship, she needs to beat, first, Bulgaria’s Sofiya Hristova Georgieva and then Japan’s Ayana Gempei. Ritu, who won an Asian Championship bronze last year, began with a close 5-4 win against Ukraine’s Ilona Prokopevniuk but lost the quarterfinal 2-6 to Finland’s Petra Maarit Olli.
With Petra making the gold medal match, Ritu progressed to the repechage round. In the 68kg, Navjot Kaur has to clear two repechage rounds to make it to the bronze medal match. First up is Eunsil Jang and if she manages to beat the Korean she will have to fight it out with Canada’s Olivia Grace Di Bacco.
Upon winning both the rounds, she will face America’s Tamyra Mariama Mensah for bronze. Navjot beat Chinese Taipei’s Wen Ling Chen 4-2 in the qualification round but lost the pre-quarterfinal 0-4 to France’s Koumba Selene Fanta Larroque, who reached the final. It was curtains for Rajni (72kg) and Kiran (76kg) in the championship.
Rajni lost her pre-quarterfinal 0-2 to Austria’s Martina Kuenz while Kiran began with a fantastic 6-0 win over Taipei’s Hui Tsz Chang but lost to Kazakshtan’s Elmira Syzdykova by technical superiority.