Asian Games: Wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Geetika Jakhar win bronze

Geetika Jakhar (red)

India’s women wrestlers clinched two bronze medals in the 2014 Asian Games at the Dowon Gymnasium on Saturday. Vinesh first won the bronze outclassing Mongolia’s Narangerel Erdenesuk in the women's freestyle 48-kg category at the Dowon Gymnasium on Saturday. She had earlier lost to Japan’s Eri Tosaka in the semifinals. She got the better of Uzbekistan’s Yakshimuratova Dauletbike in the quarterfinals in a keenly contested bout. Vinesh had snuffed out the challenge of Korea’s Pak Yongmi in the opening round.

Geetika Jakhar defeated Vietnam’s Ly Thi Hien in the women’s freestyle 48-kg category. The 29-year-old Indian wrestler, who had featured in the 2006 Doha Asian Games as well as in the recent Glasgow Commonwealth Games, had lost to China’s Xilou Zhuoma in the semifinals.

Geeetika earlier showed her class first accounting for Kazakhstan’s Larionova Yekaterina in the opening round before going on to prevail over Thailand’s Auntun Jaratrawee in the quarterfinals.

Earlier, the Indian men grapplers put up a disappointing showing. 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games gold medallist Amit Kumar was in for a shock as he was overpowered by Japan’s Morishita Fumitaka in the freestyle 57-kg category. The woes of the men’s wrestlers were further compounded when Praveen Rana crashed out losing to Japan’s Kojima Takafumi in the freestyle 70-kg category.