Silver for Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat wins bronze at Asian Wrestling Championships

NEW DELHI: Star grappler Sakshi Malik went down fighting in the final of the 65 kg category to remain content with a silver at the Asian Wrestling Championships being held at the KD Jadhav Wrestling Hall here on Friday, while Asian Games gold medallist Vinesh Phogat won a bronze.

Vinesh beat Vietnam's Thi Ly Kiu 10-0 by technical superiority in the bronze medal match in the 53kg category. Earlier, a defeat to Japanese Mayu Mukaida put her out of contention for the gold. Notably, Mukaida, who won silver at the 2019 wrestling World Championships, went on to lose her gold medal match.

Bronze medallist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Sakshi was the only Indian to get through to the title round on Friday before losing a closely fought 65kg final to Naomi Ruike of Japan.

Sakshi was unable to execute an attack on her opponent's legs in the second minute of the match which gave Ruike an opportunity to steal two points. Sakshi came within touching distance of overturning the deficit in the final seconds of the bout, but Ruike held fort.

Meanwhile, Gursharan Preet Kaur won a bronze with a 5-2 win over Mongolia's Tsevegmed Enkhbayar. She had beaten Svetlana Oknazarova of Uzbekistan earlier in the day but her subsequent loss to Kazakhstan's Zhamila Bakbergenova cost her a place in the final. Anshu Malik (18), also making her senior debut at the tournament, won bronze after beating Uzbekistan's Sevara Eshmuratova 4-1. IANS

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