Tashkent (Uzbekistan): Indian judoka Tulika Maan crashed out of the World Judo Championships 2022 after losing to Japan’s Wakaba Tomita in the second round, here on Wednesday.
Tulika, who won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham, received a walkover in the first round after Croatia’s Tina Radic pulled out from the event. However, in the second round, she was competing with an injured knee and lost to 2021 world championships silver medallist Wakaba Tomita. The Japanese judoka scored an ippon to take the win.
With Tomita losing to Brazil’s Beatriz Souza in the semi-finals, the 24-year-old Tulika also crashed out of repechage contention, an olympics.com report said.
Tulika was the only Indian competing at the World Judo Championships 2022 and she had qualified for the event based on her world ranking of 92. Notbaly, the World Judo Championships 2022 is a qualifying event for the Paris 2024 Olympics with quota places on offer.
Another Indian – Sunibala Devi, ranked 100 in the women’s 63kg category, also qualified for the world championships but chose not to compete in Tashkent as the dates clashed with the National Games in Gujarat.
Earlier in August, Tulika Maan went on to win a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games despite injuring her left knee.
The damage was aggravated when she slipped during the National Games earlier this month. She has been suggested surgery to treat her left leg’s ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), MCL (medial collateral ligament), and meniscus.
–IANS