Greater Noida, January 24, 2019: Vinesh Phogat led Mumbai Maharathi to a convincing 4-3 win and cut short Haryana Hammers’ winning streak in the Pro Wrestling League (PWL) Season 4 currently underway at the Gautam Buddha University Indoor Stadium in Greater Noida on Thursday.
The 24-year-old wrestler who was nominated for the prestigious Laureus Awards recently got tough resistance from the Haryana Hammers wrestler Seema but the Asian Games gold medal winner clinched it 12-2 to win the tie with one bout remaining.
#PWL4: What a match and a stunning start to the third and last leg of the #ProWrestlingLeague season 4. @MumbaiMaharathi proved to be a heavy competitor for the @haryanahammers who had their first defeat of the season & lost the match 3-4 @SPN_Action @NewsX @wrestling #MatLePanga pic.twitter.com/riWi3mw8S8
— Pro Wrestling League (@Official_PWL) January 24, 2019
In the inconsequential 57kg men’s bout the world U23 championships silver medalist Ravi Kumar of Haryana Hammers rallied to beat the European U23 champion Ibragim Ilyasov of Mumbai Maharathi 13-9. Ibragim was leading 9-5 at one stage.
Earlier, Harphool gave Mumbai Maharathi an early lead beating country mate Haryana Hammers’ Rajneesh 5-2 in an evenly contested bout in the 65kg category.
European championships bronze medalist Tatyana Omelchenko restored parity for the Haryana Hammers in the next bout beating Shilpi Yadav of Mumbai 16-0 in a completely one-sided encounter in the women’s 62kg category.
Next it was world championships bronze medalist Ali Shabanov’s turn to put the Hammers 2-1 ahead edging past Mumbai Maharathi’s 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 Maharathi beating 2018 Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Kiran 6-4 in the women’s 76kg category. It was Kiran who took a 4-2 lead midway through the first round but Zseneth came back strongly to clinch the bout.
Russia’s Baitseev Vladisiav put Mumbai Maharathi on the doorsteps of victory wining the 125kg category bout against Haryana’s Ukrainian wrestler Aleksander Khotsianivski 6-2. After the fifth bout, Mumbai was leading 3-2 with Vinesh Phogat scheduled to come in next.
Results:
65kgM: Harphool (Mumbai Maharathi) bt Rajneesh (Haryana Hammers)
62kgF: Shilpi Yadav (Mumbai Maharathi) lost to Tatyana Omelchenko (Haryana Hammers)
86kgM: Deepak Punia (Mumbai Maharathi) lost to Ali Shabanov (Haryana Hammers)
76kgF: Zseneth Nemeth (Mumbai Maharathi) bt Kiran (Haryana Hammers)
125kgM: Baitseev Vladisiav (Mumbai Maharathi) bt Khotsianivski Aleksander (Haryana Hammers)
53kgF: Vinesh Phogat (Mumbai Maharathi) bt Seema (Haryana Hammers)
57kgM: Ibragim Ilyasov (Mumbai Maharathi) lost Ravi Kumar (Haryana Hammers).