Sangeeta Phogat bags bronze at Budapest Ranking Series

Budapest [Hungary]: Two-time world championships medallist Sangeeta Phogat clinched a bronze medal in the 59kg category at the Budapest Ranking Series 2023 on Saturday.

Sangeeta was among the wrestlers who protested against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Singh, against whom allegations of sexual harassment were made earlier this year.

This win marks her return to the mat on a commendable note by winning the bronze play-off by 6-2 against the crowd’s favourite Hungarian, Viktoria Borsos, who is the U-20 World Championship silver medallist.

Competing in the women’s 59kg, Sangeeta Phogat began the series with a defeat against USA’s Jennifer Page Rogers, in the first round.

But she bounced back to register a victory against another American grappler, Brenda Olivia Reyna, via technical superiority in round three.

In the semi-finals, Sangeeta suffered a 6-4 defeat to Magdalena Urszula Glodek of Poland and entered the bronze medal match.

Sangeeta began the semi-final round with double-leg attacks but she failed to convert her moves into points.

She led twice, first 2-0 and then by 4-2, but Glodek’s counter-attacking shifted the momentum in her favour and end the contest with a 6-4 win.

Sarita Mor (women’s 59kg), Sujeet (men’s 65kg) and Greco-Roman wrestler Sunil Kumar (87kg) were also listed to compete at the meet but they withdrew from the tournament earlier.

This year, Indian grapplers have won two bronze medals each in the Zagreb and Ibrahim Moustafa ranking series tournaments. At the Bishkek ranking series, India won one gold, one silver and two bronze medals.

The Budapest meet is also known as the Polyak Imre & Varga Janos Memorial wrestling tournament. This tournament is the year’s fourth and final ranking series.