Nisha Dahiya secures fifth quota for India in World Wrestling Olympic Qualifiers

Istanbul (Turkiye), May 10: Woman wrestler Nisha Dahiya claimed a quota place for India for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris in the 68kg category at the World Wrestling Olympic Qualifiers here on Friday. She reached the final in the women's 68kg freestyle category to secure her ticket to Paris.

This is India’s fifth quota in wrestling for the Paris 2024 Olympics and all have come through women wrestlers. She joins Antim Panghal (53kg), Vinesh Phogat (50kg), Anshu Malik (57kg) and Reetika Hooda (76kg) as other Indians to have won Olympic quotas so far. No Greco-Roman wrestler could manage to bag a quota place in what is the final opportunity to gain Olympic berths.

Nisha defeated individual neutral athlete Alina Shauchuk, a former U23 world championships silver medallist, 3-0 in the Round of 16 before edging out Adela Hanzlickova of Czechia, the top seed, 7-4 in the semifinals.

Facing Romania’s decorated Alexandra Anghel, a former world championships bronze medal winner and European champion, in the semifinals, the Indian wrestler came up trumps under pressure to pick up an 8-4 win and an Olympic quota to go with it.

Nisha Dahiya secured a Paris 2024 quota for India in the women’s freestyle 68kg category at the World Wrestling Olympic Qualifiers in Istanbul, Türkiye on Friday.

The Istanbul meet is the final opportunity for wrestlers to obtain a quota for the upcoming Summer Games. Three Paris 2024 Olympic quotas are on offer in each weight class. The two finalists in each division will obtain Paris 2024 Olympic quotas for their respective countries. The third spot, meanwhile, will go to the winner of the playoff bout between the two bronze medallists in the weight class.

Mansi Ahlawat’s quota quest in the women’s 62kg, however, was ended by Veranika Ivanova in the Round of 16.

In the Greco-Roman wrestling, India's Sunil Kumar, who won a bronze medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, won a bout in repechage but then went down to his next opponent and crashed out. He beat Greece’s Ilias Pagkalidis 10-3 in his first repechage bout but lost to Sweden’s Alex Kessidis 9-4 in the next. He needed to win four bouts on Friday to obtain a quota.

Six Indian men’s freestyle grapplers will start their hunt for Olympic quotas on Saturday.