ALMATY: Dominating the proceedings in a depleted field, Olympic-bound wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Anshu Malik won their maiden Asian Championship titles after comfortable triumphs in their respective summit clashes on Friday.
There was no stopping Vinesh in the absence of the Chinese and
Japanese rivals as she cruised to the title without losing a point in the 53kg category.
Vinesh has notched up seven podium finishes at the Asian meet over the years, including three silver medals before this edition.
The 19-year old Anshu, who bagged the Tokyo Games quota here a few days ago, was yet again impressive as she underlined
her progress in the senior circuit with yet another confident performance in 57kg
She won her final 3-0 and was never really troubled by Mongolia’s Battsetseg Altantsetseg, except for a double-leg attack initially in the bout.
The Mongolian was mostly busy defending and Anshu kept her lead intact for gold.
Earlier in the day, Vinesh won by technical superiority against Mongolia’s Otgonjargal Ganbaatar and Taipei’s Meng Hsuan Hsieh while an injured Hyunyoung Oh from Korea did not turn up for the semifinal.
Vinesh, who had won a bronze in the Delhi edition of the Continental championship last year, moved 6-0 up in the final and finished the bout in style by pinning her rival in the first period itself.
Anshu won her first two bouts by technical superiority against Uzbekistan’s Sevara Eshmuratova and Kyrgyzstan’s Nazira Marsbek Kyzy to reach the semifinal.
Her quick moves and tremendous energy had her rivals gasping for breath.
Up against Altantsetseg, she was leading 9-1 when the referee awarded a ‘victory by caution’ to the Indian. The Mongolian was cautioned thrice.
Also reaching the final was Sakshi Malik, who is competing in 65kg, having missed her claim in her pet 62kg category.
Competing much better than she was in the trials, the Rio Games bronze medallist won her first two bouts by technical superiority and was leading 3-0 against Hanbit Lee when the Korean suffered a knee injury and opted out of the contest.
She will fight for gold against Mongolia’s Bolortungalag Zorigt.
Also doing well was Divya Kakran, who is competing in the 72kg category. She stunned reigning Asian Champion Zhamila
Bakbergenova from Kazakhstan 8-5 en route the third round
—PTI

Press Trust of India