Asian Wrestling Championship 2018: Navjot Wins Gold, Sakshi Bronze
DayHighlights:
- Navjot won 9-1 in 65kg freestyle
- Sakshi won 10-7 in 62kg freestyle
- India have 1 gold, 1 silver and 4 bronze
India continued their good run in the Asian Wrestling Championship after veteran Navjot Kaur won the first gold medal for India at the tournament. Ace-wrestler Sakshi Malik won her third place 62kg freestyle wrestling bout to take India’s bronze medal tally to four medals and overall medal tally to six which also include one gold and one silver.
Navjot Kaur flew the Indian flag high at the championships after she won her 65kg freestyle category final in style. She outclassed Japan’s Miya Imai 9-1 in a one-sided contest of the women’s 65kg freestyle category final in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on Friday. After having won a tornado of a semi-final 2-1againstMongolia’s Tsevegmed Enkhbayar, Navjot didn’t let the scars of that battle affect her performance in the final .If anything she looked fresher and more motivated than ever when she took on Miya in her quest to clinch the first gold of the tournament for India. An extremely fine and dominant performance by her saw her trash her opponent by nine games to one to take home the gold medal. Leading 5-0, the only blip came when she lost a game to make it 5-1. However she continued her dominance from thereon to win the remaining four games without even giving her opponent a sliver of a chance to make a comeback into the match.
In the other match of the day which involved Indian representation, Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik clinched bronze for the country. A tough battle saw Sakshi be completely stretched by Kazakhstan’s Ayaulym Kassymova. Sakshi ground through to win 10-7 on the back of a perseverant and determined performance.
Vinesh Phogat lost a close bout to settle for a silver medal. She suffered a 2-3 defeat to China’s Chun Lei in the summit clash of the 50kg freestyle event. Despite giving it her all, she succumbed to Chun’s class in the end.
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