U20 World Wrestling Championship | Priya wins gold, Antim reaches second successive finals
Some great success welcomed India in the junior wrestling World Championships on Thursday. Priya Malik became just the second Indian woman wrestler to win the U20 Championship, while quickly rising Antim Panghal also raced into the title match, for the second time in a row.
Priya defeated Germany's Laura Celive Kuehn 5-0 in the gold medal match, which was interrupted twice because of a cut sustained by the Indian. She seemed unconcerned with the cut though as she continued to traumatise her opponent. The German was shaken by her lightning-quick leg assaults but was unable to make a single point-scoring move.
Antim Panghal, who had become the first Indian woman to win the junior world championship the previous year, celebrated victory on Thursday as she moved closer to retaining her title by making it to the 53kg final.
Panghal put on a commanding performance to win all three matches with absolute ease after making news for challenging Vinesh Phogat for the Asian Games trials but losing her petition. For the first time ever, Savita (62 kg) and Antim Kundu (65 kg), two other Indian female wrestlers, advanced to the junior world championship gold medal matches.
In the 72 kg division, Harshita is also competing for a bronze.
After reaching the 76kg final that was set to happen on Wednesday, Priya performed admirably and didn’t let anyone down. In her first-round matchup against Nikola Monika Wisniewska from Poland, she comfortably cruised through in just 68 seconds. Following that performance she won the match-up over Xuejing Liang from China due to technical superiority, all of which just resulted in her losing two points on the way to the final.
In the semifinals, the wrestler from Hisar defeated Polina Lukina of Russia by technical superiority once more, winning without conceding a single point.