ALMATY, April 16: India won three gold medals on Friday at the ongoing Asian Wrestling Championships in Almaty.
Vinesh Phogat (53kg), Anshu Malik (57kg) and Divya Kakran (72kg) won their respective finals as India ended the competition with a tally of four gold medals, one silver and two bronze medals.
While India had won eight medals in the last Asian Championships as against seven this time, they have won four gold this time as against three on the last occasion.
Sakshi Malik, however, to had settle for silver medal in the 65kg category after losing in the final.
Dominating the proceedings in a depleted field, Olympic-bound star Indian wrestler Vinesh won her maiden Asian Championship gold medal after she pinned her rival in the summit clash here on Friday.
There was no stopping Vinesh in the absence of the Chinese and Japanese rivals as she cruised to the title without losing a point in the 53kg category.
Vinesh has notched up seven podium finishes at the Asian meet over the years, including three silver medals before this edition.
Earlier in the day, she won by technical superiority against Mongolia’s Otgonjargal Ganbaatar and Taipei’s Meng Hsuan Hsieh while an injured Hyunyoung Oh from Korea did not turn up for the semifinal.
Vinesh, who had won a bronze in the Delhi edition of the Continental championship last year, moved 6-0 up in the final and finished the bout in style by pinning her rival in the first period itself.
Continuing her impressive rise, Anshu, who booked an Olympic quota for herself only few days back, was yet again impressive as she underlined her progress in the senior circuit with yet another confident performance in 57kg.
She won her final 3-0 and was never really troubled by Mongolia’s Battsetseg Altantsetseg, except for a double-leg attack initially in the bout.
The Mongolian was mostly busy defending and Anshu kept her lead intact for gold.
Anshu won her first two bouts by technical superiority against Uzbekistan’s Sevara Eshmuratova and Kyrgyzstan’s Nazira Marsbek Kyzy to reach the semifinal.
Also doing well was Divya, who is competing in the 72kg category. (PTI)
