Golden Girls Divya, Sarita & Pinki Shine At Asian Wrestling C’ship

Golden Girls Divya, Sarita & Pinki Shine At Asian Wrestling C’ship

Grappler Divya Kakran becomes the second Indian woman ever to win a gold medal at the Asian Championships. In a very close match, Jakarta Asian Games bronze medallist, Divya won the round against Japan’s Naruha Matsuyuki 6-4 in the women’s 68kg. Two other wrestlers, Pinki and Sarita Mor continued the golden run by winning gold medals in the 55kg and 59kg categories respectively on Thursday. However, Nirmala Devi missed out on the gold and had to settle down for a silver medal in the 50kg category.
So far, Kakran has beaten all four of her opponents by fall. In the first round, she silenced Kazakhstan’s Albina Kairgelinova before defeating Mongolian Delgermaa Enkksaikhan. Sarita clinched gold after beating Mongolia’s Battseteg Atlantsetseg 3-2 in 59kg freestyle final.

Navjot Kaur was the first Indian woman gold medallist in the history of the Asian Championships before Divya Kakran. She secured gold in 2018 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Key Takeaways:

Divya Kakran became the second Indian woman to win a gold medal at the Asian Wrestling Championships.
Indian women are dominating the Asian Championships with Sarita Mor and Pinki winning gold, and Nirmala Devi clinching a silver medal.
Disappointing for Vinesh Phogat as she fails to avenge her loss at the World Championships to Japan’s Mayu Mukaida. Phogat lost 6-2 in her first match.

‘I have improved on my range’

Speaking on her win, young wrestler Divya said “If you have a 5-wrestler group it becomes even tougher, you have fight everyone and win big. I won 4 bouts within 2 hours. It was tough on my body but the good thing is I have improved on my range, I made all kinds of attacks, Irani, Kheme, single-led, double leg attacks, the moves on which I had spent hours practicing.”