Sarita and Sushma settle for bronze at Asian Wrestling Championships

Sarita Mor (59kg) and Sushma Shokeen (55kg) settled for two bronze medals on Day 1 of the women’s freestyle event at the Asian Wrestling Championships in Ulaanbaatar on Thursday.

However, three other Indian female wrestlers failed to enter the medal round.

Out of the four matches in the 59kg group, the experienced Sarita tasted victory in two bouts to win bronze. It was her third podium finish at the continental level.

Sarita suffered a narrow 1-2 defeat at the hands of Mongolia’s Shoovdor Baatarjav in her opening bout of the day in 59kg. She lost her second match to Japan’s Sara Natami 0-10.

Sarita regained her composure in the third match of the day and scored a 11-0 win over Dilfuza Aimbetova of Uzbekistan. In a crucial tie against Diana Kayumova of Kazakhstan, Sarita scored 5-2 to win the bronze medal.

Sara Natami of Japan won all four bouts in the round-robin league to win gold, while Shoovdor grabbed silver as she won three bouts.

Sushma, meanwhile, began her Asian Championships campaign on a slow note with a 0-10 loss to Japan’s Umi Imai. But she bounced back to beat Kazakhstan’s Altyn Shagayeva 5-0 in Round 2. The Indian wrestler continued her good run in Round 3 by defeating Sarbinaz Jienbaeva of Uzbekistan 12-0. In Round 4, she lost to Mongolia’s Otgonjargal Ganbaatar 5-15 to settle for bronze.

Manisha wasn’t lucky in the women’s 50kg category. She lost her opening bout to Japan’s Remina Yoshimoto 0-4. Manisha was back in contention for the medal as she defeated Korea’s Miran Cheon 12-1 in Round 2.

In the semi-finals, she lost her momentum and went down to Mongolia's Namuuntsetseg Tsogt Ochir 4-11. In the playoff match, Manisha lost to Jasmina Immaeva of Uzbekistan 0-10.

In 68kg, India’s Sonika Hooda lost her opening match to Naruha Matsuyuki of Japan 1-3 and then went down to Mongolia's Delgermaa Enkhsaikhan 0-10 in her second match. She beat Azoda Esbergenova of Uzbekistan 10-0 in her last match and didn’t enter the medal round.

In 76kg, India’s Sudesh Kumari also failed to enter the medal round.

Read: Indian Greco Roman wrestlers begin Asian Wrestling Championships campaign with 3 bronze medals