Antim Panghal bags silver medal at Asian Wrestling Championships 2023

Astana [Kazakhstan], April 12 : Antim Panghal, one of the rising athletes in India, competing in her first international tournament this year, bagged a silver medal at the Asian Wrestling Championships 2023 in Astana, Kazakhstan on Wednesday.

18-year-old Panghal conceded just one point on her journey to the 53kg final. Her opponent in the final was the 2021 world champion Akari Fujinami of Japan, who defeated Antim Panghal 10-0 via technical superiority.

The 19-year-old Japanese wrestler has set high standards for herself. She has never settled for anything less than gold in international tournaments. She was unbeaten in 118 matches across domestic and international competitions coming into the final.

In the earlier rounds, Antim Panghal got the better of Singaporean veteran Alvina Lim via fall and after that, she blanked China's Li Deng 6-0 in the quarter-finals.

In the semi-finals, Panghal raced to a 4-0 lead against Aktenge Keunimjaeva of Uzbekistan before conceding her first point of the day. Antim Panghal finally managed to pin her opponent to earn a shot at gold.

The remaining four Indian women wrestlers - Anshu Malik (57kg), Sonam Malik (62kg), Msha (65kg) and Reetika Hooda (72kg) - all ended up settling for a bronze.

The 2021 World Championships silver medallist Anshu Malik, won her bronze medal bout against Erdenesuvd Bat Erdene of Mongolia 10-0 via technical superiority.

Earlier, she was beaten 5-1 by the former Asian champion and eventual gold medallist Sae Nanjo of Japan in the semi-final after scoring victories over Qi Zhang of China and Delle Sue Ching Lim of Singapore.

Tokyo 2020 Olympian Sonam Malik lost her quarter-final match against 2017 world champion Orkhon Purevdorj of Mongolia by fall but with Purevdorj making it to the final, Sonam Malik earned a shot at bronze through a repechage.

In the bronze medal bout, Sonam Malik beat the 2019 Asian champion and current world No. 2 Xiaojuan Luo of China 5-1.

Msha competed in the round-robin format and qualified for the semi-finals in 72kg. However, the Indian wrestler lost to U20 world champion Mahiro Yoshitake of Japan by fall and then beat Albina Kairgeldinova of Kazakhstan to clinch bronze.

Reetika Hooda, meanwhile, defeated Nurzat Nurtaeva of Kyrgyzstan 6-3 in the qualification round but lost to Sumire Niikura of Japan 5-4 in the semi-final.

Reetika Hooda's biggest victory of the day came against Svetlana Oknazarova of Uzbekistan. The Indian wrestler defeated Oknazarova, a 2018 Youth Olympic Games bronze medallist, 5-1 to claim the bronze.

With five medals on the day, Indian women wrestlers finished the Asian Championships 2023 with seven medals, including two silver and five bronze.

At last year's Asian championships in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Indian women wrestlers won five medals - two silvers and three bronze.