India ace Vinesh Phogat scored a dominating 12-2 win over Seema as Mumbai Maharathi halted Haryana Hammers’s winning streak with a 4-3 win in the Pro Wrestling League in Greater Noida on Thursday.
The 24-year-old wrestler, who has been nominated for the prestigious Laureaus Awards, faced some resistance but eventually won the women’s 53kg contest by technical superiority to seal the tie with one bout remaining.
In the inconsequential 57kg men’s bout the world U23 championships silver medalist Ravi Kumar of Haryana rallied to beat the European U23 champion Ibragim Ilyasov 13-9. Earlier, Harphool gave Mumbai Maharathi an early lead, beating compatriot Rajneesh 5-2 in an evenly contested bout in the 65kg category.
Tatyana Omelchenko restored parity for Haryana in the next bout beating Shilpi Yadav of Mumbai 16-0 in a completely one-sided encounter in the women’s 62kg category. World championships bronze medalist Ali Shabanov put the Hammers 2-1 ahead edging past Deepak Punia 4-3 in an edge-of-the-seat thriller in the 86kg category.
The European championships silver medalist Hungarian Zseneth Nemeth made it 2-2 for Mumbai, beating 2018 Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Kiran 6-4 in the women’s 76kg category.
It was Kiran who took 4-2 lead midway through the first round but Nemeth came back strongly to clinch the bout. Russia’s Baitseev Vladisiav put Mumbai on the doorsteps of victory wining the 125kg category bout against Ukrainian wrestler Aleksander Khotsianivski 6-2.