New Delhi, November 23: Indian wrestlers continue to shine at the U15 Asian Wrestling Championships in Taichung, Chinese Taipei as they captured a rich haul of 6 gold medals today. Led by 2019 cadet world champion Komal (39kg), the gold rush ensured that the contingent now has a total of eight gold medals after beginning their campaign with a couple of gold on Friday.
While Komal, one of the fastest-rising Indian wrestling stars, lived up to the expectations, the other girls also impressed with both Saloni (33kg), and Babli (36kg) performing brilliantly to finish on the top podium. All the 3 girls gave dominating display to stay undefeated in their respective categories.
The exploits of Indian freestyle wrestlers continued on Day 2 as well as in the 48kg category, Akash performed brilliantly to beat Daiki Ogawa of Japan. Akash’s quick reflexes did not give any chance to the Japanese in the bout, resulting in victory for India by 8-3.
Debutant Udit Kumar also shone on Day 2, bringing home a silver in 57kg to add to the bronze he won earlier in the year at the Cadet World Championships. With Kapil too winning a bronze medal in 52kg, all the 6 Indian freestyle wrestlers in the squad have won a medal. This has resulted in India leading the team rankings list with 125 points, followed by Kazakhstan with 120.
Greco-Roman turned out to be the biggest surprise of the day. The category, which has traditionally not been the strongest for India so far, proved to be the biggest hunting ground as all 4 wrestlers in the category won medals. Ankit Gulia defeated Korganov of Kazakhstan to win the gold medal in the 68kg category. In 75kg, Chirag Dhalia won gold for India by winning both his bouts. The other 2 Greco-Roman medals came in 62kg and 85kg when Sumit and Arshdeep Singh won the silver.