Asian Wrestling Championships: Anshu Malik, Radhika bag silver

Anshu Malik couldn’t repeat her last edition’s heroics. The girl from Nidani in Haryana’s Jind district, settled for silver after going down to reigning world champion (55kg), Japan’s Tsugumi Sakurai, in the final of the women’s freestyle 57kg category at the Asian Wrestling Championships in Mongolia’s Ulaanbaatar on Friday. Joining Anshu on the podium were Radhika who clinched a silver medal in the 65kg category, and Manisha who clinched bronze in the 62kg division.

The bronze would have brought some comfort to Manisha, who had lost her father days before leaving for the event. The other two Indian women wrestlers in the fray on Day 4 of competitions – Swati Shinde and Nikki – couldn’t make the medal round after faltering in their respective group stages. While Swati finished sixth in the 53kg category, Nikki ended fourth among five athletes in the 72kg class.

Indian women wrestlers concluded their campaign with five medals, none managing to secure a gold medal finish. On Thursday, another defending champion, Sarita Mor (59kg), and Sushma (55kg), had settled for a bronze each. On the final day of the women’s events, Anshu raised hopes of another gold when she breezed past Uzbekistan’s Shokhida Akhmedova 10-0 in her opening bout.

The Tokyo Olympian looked in devastating form and crushed the challenge of Singapore’s Danielle Sue Ching Lim 10-0 to march into the semis. In the last-four meet, Anshu, the 2021 Oslo World Championships runner-up, showed no respect to former Asian silver medallist (62kg) Mongolia’s Bolortuya Khurelkhuu and tamed her 11-0 for a place in the final. However, luck deserted the Indian when Japanese Sakurai got the better of her ‘by fall’ in the final.