In the final Panghal final, three others including Anshu will fight for the bronze medal

India’s young grappler Avinash Panghal displayed a fine counter-attack to enter the 53kg final of the Asian Wrestling Championships as Anshu Malik failed to break Japan’s Sae Nanjo’s defense to settle for a bronze medal here on Wednesday. have to fight for. The 18-year-old Panghal, who became the first Indian woman wrestler to become the Under-20 world champion last year, easily outclassed her rivals and conceded just one point en route to the final. Panghal lost a point in the semifinals against Uzbekistan’s Akteng Qunimzaeva due to a warning but won the match comfortably 8-1.

Panghal started her campaign with a comfortable win over Singapore’s Siao Ping Elwina Lim and followed it up with a 6-0 win over China’s Li Deng in the quarterfinals. She will be up against 2021 world champion Akari Fujinami of Japan, who has hardly lost a match since she started competing at the senior level in 2020, for the gold medal. Anshu Malik was expected to do well in the 57kg category but the 2021 World Championships silver-medallist struggled to score points against reigning U-23 world champion Nanjo.

The Japanese grappler also showed aggression in the first period while Anshu lost a point for being inactive. Nanjo also lost points for passivity in the second period, but dominated after that, and the Japanese was leading 5-1 when the referee stopped the bout. Anshu was injured during the bout and if she is fit, she will take on Mongolia’s Erdenesuvad Bait Erdeen for the bronze medal.

Meanwhile, Manisha (65kg), Ritika (72kg) and Sonam Malik (62kg) will fight for the bronze medals. Sonam had lost to Mongolia’s Orkhon Purevdorj in the quarterfinals but the Indian got a chance to make a comeback in the competition after her opponent reached the final. India has so far won six medals in the competition. Of these, four medals have been won by Greco-Roman wrestlers. On Tuesday, Nisha Dahiya (68kg) won silver and Priya (76kg) won bronze.