Navjot Kaur became the first Indian woman to claim a gold medal in the Asian wrestling championships when she defeated Imai Miyu of Japan in the final to win the 65kg title in the Kyrgyzstan capital on Friday.
In a competition involving only six competitors, Navjot, who had bagged Asian bronze (2011) and silver (2013) medals and a Commonwealth Games bronze medal (2014), lost to Imai 4-4 and won against Uzbekistan’s Baltaniyazova Bakhtigul 10-0 in her group to make it to the semifinal.
The 28-year-old beat Mongolian Enkhbayar Tsevegmed 2-1 in the last four and got the better of Mai 9-1 in the final to corner the yellow metal.
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Bronze for Sakshi
Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik had to settle for a bronze medal after losing 6-6 to eventual silver medallist Xiaojuan Luo of China in a 62kg first round bout.
In the repechage rounds, Sakshi defeated Jiae Choi of Korea 11-0 and Ayaulym Kassymova of Kazakhstan 10-7 to bag the bronze.
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