India’s Nisha and Priya shine in Asian Wrestling Championship, capture silver and bronze medals
Indian wrestlers Nisha Dahiya and Priya on Tuesday won silver and bronze medals in their respective weight categories at the ongoing Asian Wrestling Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan. Nisha, a bronze medalist at the U23 World Championships in the 65kg category last year, had competed in the 68kg category. Meanwhile, she started her day with a 10-10 win over last edition’s bronze medalist Delgerma Enkhsaikhan of Mongolia in the quarter-finals via criteria. After this, while returning, she defeated Asian Games champion and Olympian Feng Zhou of China.
And there is Ami Ishii who is a brilliant Japanese player and a silver medalist in the 2022 World Championships. She proved to be too strong for Nisha. While Ishi won the match, Nisha had to settle for silver. In the women’s competition, Priya, competing in the 76kg category, defeated Chinese Taipei’s Hui Tse Chang 2-1 to advance to the qualification round. But she lost to Aperi Kazi of Kyrgyzstan in the quarterfinals. The 18-year-old Indian entered the repechage round after Kazi reached the final.
In the bronze medal match, U17 world champion Priya defeated Japan’s Mizuki Nagashima 2-1 to win the bronze medal. Let us tell you that with this victory, the total number of medals in India’s championship has increased to six. In the previous days, Greco-Roman wrestler Rupin (55kg) won silver while Neeraj (63kg), Vikas (72kg) and Sunil Kumar (87kg) won bronze medals. Neelam (50kg), Seeto (55kg) and Sarita Mor (59kg) were the three other women competing on Tuesday but failed to clinch a medal.
Neelam won her quarterfinal bout against Elada Makhydinova of Kazakhstan via fall, but lost to eventual gold medalist Remina Yoshimoto of Japan in the semi-finals. In the bronze medal match, China’s Jiki Feng defeated Neelam on technical superiority.
