Asian wrestling: Three women grapplers win medals

Indian women wrestlers picked up two silver medals and a bronze in the Asian wrestling championships in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on Friday.

World championships silver medallist Anshu (57kg) and Radhika (65kg) claimed silver medals, while Manisha (62kg) bagged a bronze as the Indian women totaled five medals.

Defending champion Anshu defeated Uzbek Shokhida Akhmedova 10-0 and Singapore’s Danielle Sue Ching Lim 10-0 to reach the semifinals. The Indian got past Mongolia’s Bolortuya Khurelkhuu, a 62kg silver medallist in 2021, 11-0 in the last-four.

Anshu lost to 55kg World champion Tsugumi Sakurai of Japan ‘by fall’ in the final to take the silver medal. 

Radhika was outsmarted by Worlds silver medallist Japanese Miwa Morikawa 10-0. Later, she defeated Uzbekistan’s Ariukhan Jumabaeva ‘by fall’, former World under-23 silver medallist Purevsuren Ulziisaikhan of Mongolia 8-6 and Kazakhstan’s Dariga Aben 10-0 to secure the silver medal in a field of five wrestlers.

Manisha, who lost her father just prior to leaving for the event, beat Kazakhstan’s Ayaulym Kassymova 9-0 in the quarterfinals but lost to Japanese Nonoka Ozaki, a Worlds bronze medallist, 10-0 in the semifinals. She pinned last year’s 65kg bronze medallist Hanbit Lee of Korea in the bronze medal match.

Swati Shinde finished sixth and last in 53kg. Nikki took the fourth spot among five athletes in 72kg.