Navjot Kaur crashes out of World Wrestling Championships

The other three Indian quarterfinalists namely - Ritu Phogat, Pooja Dhanda and Sakshi Malik were also ousted in their bouts.

Wrestler Navjot Kaur (being carried) in a file photo.

BUDAPEST: India's medal hopes suffered yet another setback after Asian Championship gold medallist Navjot Kaur lost to her Canadian opponent Olivia Grace DI Bacco in second repechage round of women's 68 kg freestyle event at the ongoing World Wrestling Championships being held at the Papp Laszlo Sportarena in Budapest.

Navjot started strongly by blanking Korean wrestler Jang Eunsil 10-0 in the first repechage round.

The other three Indian quarterfinalists namely - Ritu Phogat, Pooja Dhanda and Sakshi Malik were also ousted in their bouts. Ritu Phogat had trounced Vietnam's Thi Xuan Nguyen in pre-quarters of 50kg weight category to book a berth in quarters. However, Ritu was defeated by Japan's Yui Susaki 11-0 in the quarterfinals.

All eyes were riveted on Rio Olympics bronze medallist, who had stormed into the quarterfinal of 62kg women's freestyle category after a 6-0 win against Russian wrestler Anzhela Fomenko. Sakshi's struggle at the international stage continued as Japanese Yukako Kawai pinned her by 16-2 and scored a commendable victory against the Khel Ratna awardee.

India's last medal hope, Pooja Dhanda went down fighting to Chinese wrestler Ningning Rong by 3-4 in the 57kg division.

Earlier, Navjot got lucky to enter the repechage round after her French opponent Koumba Selene F Larroque entered the final. The French women had defeated Navjot Kaur by 4-0 on points in the second round. Navjot won her first-round bout 4-2 in 68 kg against Wen Ling Chen of Chinese Taipei but lost the pre-quarterfinals to Koumba Selene Fanta Larroque of France without a single point. The Frenchwoman won 4-0. Ritu had beaten Ilona Prokopevniuk of Ukraine 5-4 after getting a first-round bye.

India's Rajni, however, received the first-round bye as she went down to Martina Kuenz of Austria 2-0 in 72 kg category.

In 76 kg class, Kiran lost her pre-quarterfinal bout to Kazakhstan's Elmira Syzdykova by technical fall (2-12) after defeating Chinese Taipei's Hui Tsz Chang 6-0 in the qualification bout.