Navjot Kaur becomes first Indian woman to win gold at Asian Wrestling C’ships
Sakshi Malik clinches bronze in the 62kg on what was a memorable day for Indian wrestling.
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Navjot Kaur becomes first Indian woman to win gold at Asian Wrestling C’ships Sakshi Malik clinches bronze in the 62kg on what was a memorable day for Indian wrestling. Navjot Kaur produced a thoroughly dominating performance in the final of the women’s 65kg freestyle category to clinch gold medal in what was a day to remember for Indian wrestling at the Asian Wrestling Championships in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
Navjot Kaur produced a thoroughly dominating performance in the final of the women’s 65kg freestyle category to clinch gold medal in what was a day to remember for Indian wrestling at the Asian Wrestling Championships in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. With Sakshi Malik winning the bronze medal in the 62kg category, India’s medal tally stood at one gold, one silver and four bronze medals on Friday.
In the process, Navjot Kaur became the first Indian woman has stood at the top of the podium at the senior Asian Wrestling Championships.
Navjot was impressive throughout her final bout against Japan’s Miya Imai as she recorded a convincing 9-1 win while Sakshi emerged from a hard-fought bronze medal playoff against Kazhakstan’s Ayaulym Kassymova with a 10-7 scoreline.
The Japanese wrestler made the initial moves but Kaur stayed strong on defence. A counter-attack from the Indian gave her a 2-0 lead, but it was wiped out after a successful challenge by the Japanese coaches.
With less than 20 seconds left on the clock in the first half of the bout, Kaur was under pressure from the Japanese again who had caught hold of the Indian’s right leg. Kaur’s defence was solid and she was able to convert it into points on her own, taking a 2-0 lead again and this time around the challenge from Japanese coaches didn’t stand and the scoreline was revised to 5-0 in the Indian’s favour heading into the 30-second break.
With a healthy head in her favour going into the final three minutes, it was a question of Kaur hanging on defensively. As expected Imai came out all guns blazing. With 50 secs left, she got on the scoreboard finally, making it 1-5.
And then came the moment of the bout. With Imai once again targeting Kaur’s right leg, the Punjabi read what was coming and produced a breathtaking counterattacking move – a throwdown resulting in four points a deserved 9-1 win as the clock wound down.
Kaur was in tears as she was paraded around the mat on her coach’s shoulders with the tri-colour draped on her back. The 28-year-old has been around the wrestling circuit a while, as she had previously won silver at the Asian Championships in 2013 and also has a bronze from the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
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