Asian Wrestling Championships 2023: India’s Antim Panghal wins silver medal

India’s rising star Antim Panghal, competing in her first international tournament this year, won a silver medal at the Asian Wrestling Championships 2023 in Astana, Kazakhstan on Wednesday.

Antim Panghal, 18, conceded just one point en route to the 53kg final. Her opponent in the final, however, was 2021 world champion Akari Fujinami of Japan, who defeated Antim Panghal 10-0 via technical superiority.

The 19-year-old Japanese wrestler has never settled for anything less than gold in international tournaments and was unbeaten in 118 matches across domestic and international competitions coming into the final.

In the earlier rounds, Antim Panghal got the better of Singaporean veteran Alvina Lim via fall and then blanked China’s Li Deng 6-0 in the quarter-finals.

In the semis, Panghal raced to a 4-0 lead against Aktenge Keunimjaeva of Uzbekistan before conceding her first point of the day. Antim Panghal then pinned her opponent to earn a shot at gold.

The remaining four Indian women wrestlers - Anshu Malik (57kg), Sonam Malik (62kg), Manisha (65kg) and Reetika Hooda (72kg) - all settled for bronze.

Anshu Malik, the 2021 World Championships silver medallist, won her bronze medal bout against Erdenesuvd Bat Erdene of Mongolia 10-0 via technical superiority.

Earlier, Anshu Malik was beaten 5-1 by former Asian champion and eventual gold medallist Sae Nanjo of Japan in the semi-final after scoring victories over Qi Zhang of China and Danielle Sue Ching Lim of Singapore.

Tokyo 2020 Olympian Sonam Malik lost her quarter-final against 2017 world champion Orkhon Purevdorj of Mongolia by fall but with Purevdorj making it to the final, Sonam Malik earned a shot at bronze through repechage. In the bronze medal bout, Sonam Malik beat 2019 Asian champion and current world No. 2 Xiaojuan Luo of China 5-1.

Manisha competed in the round-robin format and qualified for the semi-finals in 72kg. However, the Indian wrestler lost to U20 world champion Mahiro Yoshitake of Japan by fall and then beat Albina Kairgeldinova of Kazakhstan to clinch bronze.

Reetika Hooda, meanwhile, defeated Nurzat Nurtaeva of Kyrgyzstan 6-3 in the qualification round but lost to Sumire Niikura of Japan 5-4 in the semi-final.

Reetika Hooda’s biggest victory of the day came against Svetlana Oknazarova of Uzbekistan. The Indian wrestler defeated Oknazarova, a 2018 Youth Olympic Games bronze medallist, 5-1 to claim the bronze.

With five medals on the day, Indian women wrestlers finished the Asian Championships 2023 with seven medals, including two silver and five bronze.

At last year’s Asian championships in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Indian women wrestlers won five medals – two silvers and three bronze.