New Delhi, India, February 23, 2020: The Indian women’s team registered its best-ever performance at the Asian Wrestling Championships finishing with eight medals, including three golds, last Friday, September 21.
The Indian team had won only one gold medal before this edition but, spurred on by partisan fans at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Sports Complex in New Delhi, the local team led by golden girls Divya Kakran (68kg), Sarita Mor (59kg) and Pinki (55kg) dominated the women’s freestyle events.
Kakran set the tone with a brilliant display of attacking wrestling en route to her maiden Asian Championships gold. Kakran won all her four bouts in the five-wrestler 68kg category, including against world junior champion Naruha Matsuyuki of Japan.
Two silver medals were won by Nirmala Devi (50kg) and Sakshi Malik (65kg) while Vinesh Phogat (53kg), Anshu Malik (57kg) and Gursharan Preet Kaur (72kg) won bronze medals.
The coronavirus epidemic in China led to the country’s 40-member contingent withdrawing from the six-day Asian Championships which end on Sunday.