Reetika wins the UWW U23 World Championships, becomes first-ever Indian woman wrestler to do so

Reetika has created history by becoming the first Indian female wrestler to win a gold medal in the U23 World Championships.

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The young wrestler, Reetika achieved this memorable feat at the U23 World Championships 2023 to be held in Albania, where he defeated Kennedy Blades of USA 9-2. Apart from that, Neha Sharma has won silver medal in 55 kg weight category and Nitika has won bronze medal in 59 kg weight category.

Reetika, who recently switched from 72kg to 76kg, was against a tough opponent in the form of Blades who is a U20 Worlds medalist and former junior world champion. She produced a brilliant counter-offense game to shut Blades and started the bout with two points through stepouts. Blades made a comeback with a double-leg attack to make it 2-2.

Reetika went into the break with a lead of 3-2. Blades was desperate to attack but Reetika expertly kept herself distance and scored a takedown to make it 5-2. It was no looking back for the Asian Championships bronze medalist from Rohtak as she scored another takedown before clinching the gold with another step out.

Earlier, Reetika started the tournament with a 9-1 win over Japanese Nodoka Yamamoto in the qualification and defeated Rita Talismanovaa in the quarter-finals 16-6. She defeated Anastasiya Alpyeyeva of Ukraine 5-0 in the semi-finals to set up her final clash. After that, Reetika became the first-ever female wrestler from India to become the U23 World Champion while the men's category saw Aman Sehrawat clinch the title last year in 57kg.

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India has won a total of five medals at the U23 World Championships in Tirana, Albania with Naveen and Sagar Jaglan winning bronze medals in men's 74kg and 79kg respectively. All the Indian wrestlers are playing under the UWW banner as the Wrestling Federation of India is suspended on the grounds of administrative issues.