After Geeta, Babita and Vinesh, another Phogat girl is making waves on the world stage. And, according to brother Rahul, Ritu is the most ruthless of all six Phogat sisters on the mat. On Saturday, Ritu (22) won the silver in the 48kg category in the World U-23 Wrestling Championship in Bydgoscz, Poland. This was India’s first medal in the prestigious meet. Before Ritu’s silver, Indian women wrestlers - including the other Phogat sisters - had at best managed to win a bronze in the championship. Ritu lost the final to Evin Demirhan of Turkey in a thrilling bout after being tied at 4-4 at the end of two rounds. But the Turkish girl was declared the winner since Ritu had a caution point against her name during the bout. Ritu had received a walkover in the first round and straightaway got a place in the quarterfinals, where she defeated Miglena Georgieva Selishka of Bulgaria by a 4-2 margin. In the semis, she defeated China’s Jiang Zhu 4-3 in a closely fought encounter. In 2016, Ritu had won gold at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championship in Singapore in the 48kg category. In May this year, she won a bronze at the Asian Wrestling Championship in New Delhi.
