Vinesh Phogat beat Greece's Maria Prevolaraki 4-1 to win bronze at the World Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday. By making the medal round through repechage, she had also secured India's first wrestling quota for the Tokyo Olympics in the 53kg category.
She had defeated Ukraine's Yulia K Blahinya 5-0 in the first round of repechage before going on to beat World No. 1 American Sarah Ann Hilderbrandt 8-2 to assure herself of a top-six finish, which in turn ensured her of an Olympic berth. The top six wrestlers at the Worlds in each of the Olympic categories earn a quota for Tokyo 2020.
Vinesh is the fifth Indian woman to win a Worlds medal and the first in a pre-Olympic year.
Earlier, Vinesh had lost to reigning World champion Mayu Mukaida of Japan in the round of 16 on Tuesday, but qualified for repechage after Mukaida reached the final. It was a second consecutive defeat for Vinesh against the Japanese this season after losing to the two-time world champion at the Asian Championship in China.
In another Olympic category, Seema Bisla (50kg), who had earlier lost her pre-quarterfinal 2-9 to three-time Olympic medallist Mariya Stadnik, lost 3-11 in the second round of repechage to Russia's Ekaterina Poleshchuk to narrowly miss out on a quota.
