Anshu Malik beat junior European champion Solomiia Vynnyk of Ukraine 11-0 in the semi-finals of the 57kg division, thus becoming the first Indian to reach the women’s wrestling final at the World Championships.
Anshu Malik on Wednesday created history by becoming the first Indian woman wrestler to reach the final of the wrestling World Championships when she beat junior European champion Solomiia Vynnyk in the 57kg division.
The 19-year-old Anshu, the reigning Asian champion, controlled the semifinal from the beginning and won by technical superiority to go into history books. Only four Indian women wrestlers have won medals at the Worlds and all of them – Geeta Phogat (2012), Babita Phogat (2012), Pooja Dhanda (2018) and Vinesh Phogat (2019) – have clinched bronze.
Anshu has the chance of becoming only the second Indian wrestler after Sushil Kumar in 2010 to become a world champion.
“It’s extremely satisfying. I am so happy. It feels so good. What I could not do at the Tokyo Games I did that here. I fought each and every bout as my last bout,” said Anshu after making the final. “The month after the Tokyo Games was very tough. I could not perform as I had wanted at the Games. I suffered an injury (elbow) and can’t explain how much pain I endured one month before the World championship.
“I trained hard for this, I wanted to give my 100 per cent and will fight final like my last bout,” she said.
Anshu had lost in first round bout and later in the repechage at the Tokyo Olympics. Anshu also became only the sixth Indian ever to make the Worlds gold medal match after Bishambar Singh (1967), Sushil Kumar (2010), Amit Dahiya (2013), Bajrang Punia (2018) and Deepak Punia (2019).
Anshu’s win also ensured India’s first medal from this edition of the event. Anshu was clever with her moves. At least thrice, she effected take-down moves from the left of Vynnyk and finished the bout with an exposure move. The Nidani girl started competing in the senior circuit only from last year and has made a steady progress since then.
Earlier, she was hardly troubled by Kazakhstan’s Nilufar Raimova, whom she beat by technical superiority and later outwitted Mongolia’s Davaachimeg Erkhembayar 5-1 in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, Sarita Mor will fight for bronze after losing her semi-final to reigning European champion from Bulgaria Bilyana Zhivkova Duodova 0-3. Seasoned Sarita earlier shocked defending champion Linda Morais 8-2 in her opening bout and beat Germany’s Sandra Paruszewski 3-1 in the quarterfinals.
In the 72kg, Divya Kakran stunned Kseniia Burakova with a win ‘by fall’ but lost by technical superiority to Japan’s Under-23 world champion Masako Furuich. The 2020 Asian champion Divya fought her heart out in both the bouts and wriggled out of difficult positions umpteen times but hurried moves and over aggression cost her the quarterfinal against the Japanese.
Meanwhile, Kiran (76kg) won her repechage round against Turkey’s Aysegul Ozbege to reach bronze play-off but Pooja Jatt (53kg) lost her repechage by fall to Eucuador’s Luisa Elizabeth Melendres. Kiran will face 2020 African champion Samar Amer Ibrahim Hamza. Ritu Malik (68kg) was blown away by Ukraine’s Anastasiia Lavrenchuk in the qualification bout that lasted only 15 seconds.
Article Credit: indiatoday