Sarita wins silver, Kuldeep bags bronze in Matteo Pelicone tourney

Indian grapplers secure three medals in the Greco-Roman category on Friday, taking India's tally to five medals.

Sarita went down 4-2 to Giullia Penalber of Bulgaria in the title bout in the 57kg category. - GETTY IMAGES

India's Sarita Mor (silver) and Kuldeep Malik (bronze) bagged medals in their respective events at the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series wrestling event in Rome. Indian grapplers secured three medals in the Greco-Roman category on Friday, taking India's tally to five medals.

Asian champion Sarita beat Kazakhstan's Altynay Satylgan 4-1 in the women's 57kg quarterfinals and then defeated Emma Tissina by a fall in the semifinals to assure herself of a silver. Later, Sarita went down 4-2 to Giullia Penalber of Bulgaria in the title bout to settle for the silver. The other Indian in the same weight category, Anshu Malik lost 10-7 to Penalber in the semifinals.

She forfeited her bronze medal contest against Italy's Francesca Indelicato due to an injury. Malik had won a silver medal in the event last year.

In the 68kg category, Nisha bowed out in the qualifiers after losing 10-3 to Rio 2016 Olympian Mimi Hristova of Bulgaria. The Indian then lost 3-2 to American Alexandria Junis Glaude in the repechage contest. In the 76kg category, 2016 Olympic bronze medallist Elmira Syzdykova of Kazakhstan defeated India's Kiran 10-3 in the quarterfinal.

Among Indian male grapplers, Kuldeep Malik defeated 2014 world champion Chingiz Labazanov of Russia 10-9 to secure the bronze medal. Kuldeep had earlier lost his opening round match to reigning European champion Selcuk Can of Turkey.

Last year's gold medallist here, Gurpreet Singh, suffered a shock 12-11 loss in the 82kg qualification match against Richard Perkins of USA. The other Indian in the same weight category, Harpreet Singh, also crashed out in the qualification round, losing by a fall against Turkey's Salih Aydin.