Asian Wrestling Championships | Indian women finish with four medals in freestyle category

04/26/2019

Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik won bronze medals in women’s freestyle category on Friday at the ongoing Asian Wrestling Championships in Xi’an China. With these two medals on the final day of freestyle, India ended with a total of four medals in the women’s freestyle events in Xi’an.

After losing her quarter-final bout in the 53kg weight category by 0-10 against 55 kg world champion Mayu Mukaida of Japan, Phogat managed to defeat Jo Cih Chiu by technical superiority in the repechage round. After that, the Indian grappler also did well in the bronze medal play-off tie against China’s Qianyu Pang. The scoreline read 8-1 in favour of the Indian at the end of the game time and she claimed the bronze medal in her category.

Malik, on the other hand, had lost against Yukako Kawai in the 62kg quarter-final match as the Indian was pinned by the wrestler from Japan. Malik, however, had a chance of winning the bronze medal thanks to the Japanese entering the final. Malik won the playoffs by 9-6 points against Korean Hyon Gyong Mun. She had a tough fight for the third-place finish as she was trailing by 3-6 points at one stage of the bout.

In another terrible turn of events for India, Pooja Dhanda failed in dying moments of her bouts twice on the day in the 57kg category. She had to return home without a single medal from the tournament. Navjot Kaur and Kiran also failed to bag a medal for the nation on Friday as the freestyle bouts for female wrestlers came to an end at the continental event in China.

Earlier in the Championships, Manju Kumari and Divya Kakran bagged bronze medals in the 59kg and 68kg weight categories respectively.