Asian C’ships, women’s wrestling wrap: Antim, Nisha win silver as India women finish third

India won seven medals including two silver at the end of the women’s wrestling categories to finish third overall in the team rankings at the Asian Wrestling Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan.

World U20 champions Antim Panghal was once again impressive, as took silver in the 53kg event on Wednesday. She lost in the final to reigning champion and Japanese phenom Akari Fujinami, who is on a streak of not losing in nearly 120 bouts straight.

Nisha, a bronze medal winner at the 2020 U23 World Championships, won her first major medal at the senior level after winning silver in the 68kg event on Tuesday.

The other notable performances came from Priya and Anshu Malik in Astana.

Anshu Malik won bronze in the 57kg event but not before having to overcome a knee injury she suffered in the semifinal against her Japanese opponent. The Tokyo 2020 Olympian was screaming in pain midway through that contest and managed to see the two periods out before limping off. But she returned later in the evening for her bronze medal bout with knee brace on and produced an impressive by technical superiority.

Priya clinched bronze in the 76kg event after beating Japan’s Mizuki Nagashima in the repechage final. The youngster, who has been producing impressive results, was the only Indian to defeat a Japanese wrestler in any of the 10 categories.

Elsewhere, Manisha won bronze in the 65kg event after achieving victory by fall in her repechage final.

Reetika took bronze in the 72kg event while Sonam won bronze in the 62 kg event.

In other categories, Neelam lost in the repechage final of the 50kg event to miss out on a bronze medal. Sarita Mor and Sito were the other two to miss out on a medal finish as India made it to the podium in seven out of the 10 weight classes.

India had earlier won four medals in the men’s Greco-Roman wrestling at the championships. The men’s freestyle events will begin on Thursday.