Antim Panghal wins second silver for Indian contingent at Senior Asian Wrestling Championships in Astana

India’s promising teenage wrestler Antim Panghal settled for a silver medal in the women’s 53kg category at the Senior Asian Wrestling Championships being held in Astana, Kazakhstan on Wednesday (April 12).

Anshu Malik, Sonam Malik, Manisha, and Reetika claimed bronze medals in their respective weight categories on Wednesday. Overall, the Indian women’s team won two silver and five bronze medals in the ongoing Asian Wrestling Championships. On Tuesday (April 11), the first day of the women's freestyle wrestling competition, Nisha won silver in 68kg, while Priya claimed bronze in 76kg

Antim, the 18 years old U20 world champion, is considered to have the potential to follow in the two-time Olympian and world medalist Vinesh Phogat’s footsteps. However, going by her performance in the gold medal match against strong Japanese rival Akari Fujinami, it seems, Antim might take time to graduate to the senior level.

Antim began her gold medal match on an aggressive note, but Akari proved to be a hard nut to crack. On the counter attack, Antim conceded two points and before she could recover the lost ground, the Japanese raced to a 4-0 lead.

Taking clue of Antim’s slow reflexes, Akari was quick to move the scoreboard to 8-0. And with less than three minutes of the six-minute bout, the Japanese pocketed the gold medal with a score of 10-0 (technical superiority).

Earlier, Antim had defeated Singapore’s Hsiaq Ping Alvina Lim in qualification 10-0, and outplayed China’s Li Deng 8-0 in the quarterfinals. In the semis, the Indian wrestler beat Uzbekistan’s Aktenge Keunimjaeva 8-1.

India won the second medal, a bronze in the women’s 57kg through Anshu, who beat Mongolia’s Erdenesuvd Baterdene 10-0. After winning the bronze medal, Anshu limped off the mat as she hurt her knee during the semifinal bout against Sae Nanjo of Japan. Anshu lost 1-6 in the semis but got a chance to compete in the bronze medal match.

Sonam won the second bronze medal of the day for the Indian team as she beat China's Xiaojuan Luo in a 62kg bout. Sonam hasn’t recovered fully from a knee injury she sustained last year, says Sonam's personal coach, Ajmer Singh.

“We are overall satisfied with Sonam's performance in Kazakhstan as there was limited option of practice as she was undergoing rehabilitation,” Singh said. “It will take another two to three weeks to get back to normal routine practice.”

Manisha beat Albina Kairgeldinova of Kazakhstan 8-0 to win bronze in 65kg, while Reetika defeated Svetlana Oknazarova of Uzbekistan 5-1 to win the fourth bronze of the day.