The 29-year-old Vinesh, who had reached Madrid after making a last-minute appeal to get her Spanish Visa which was delayed and got it only a few hours before her departure, won three bouts without much difficulty to storm into the final.
Wrestler Vinesh Phogat wins gold medal in Grand Prix of Spain
In the lead-up to the Paris Olympic Games, India’s two-time Olympian Vinesh Phogat won the gold medal in the women’s 50kg category in the Grand Prix of Spain international continental wrestling championship here on Saturday. Vinesh defeated Mariia Tiumerekova — former Russian grappler now competing as an Individual Neutral Athlete — 10-5 in the final encounter to bag the yellow metal.
The 29-year-old Vinesh, who had reached Madrid after making a last-minute appeal to get her Spanish Visa which was delayed and got it only a few hours before her departure, won three bouts without much difficulty to storm into the final.
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Vinesh, who participated in the Tokyo Olympic Games in the women’s 53kg, started the day with a Round 1 win against Yusneylis Guzman, a Pan-American and Central American championships winner from Cuba. Vinesh got the better of the Cuban wrestler 12-4 on points.
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In the quarterfinals, the 29-year-old from Charkhi Dadri, Haryana, pinned Madison Parks of Canada, a silver medallist at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. In the semifinals, Vinesh defeated another Canadian Katie Dutchak 9-4 to seal a place in the final.
The win is a huge morale booster for Vinesh, who was a prominent face of the protests against the former president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
After the Grand Prix of Spain, Vinesh will attend a camp in Spain and reach France well before the Paris Olympic Games, which will start on July 26.
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