ULAANBAATAR: Anshu Malik was dominance personified as she won all her three bouts by technical superiority to breeze into the 57kg title clash while Manisha will fight for 62kg bronze at the Asian Championship here on Friday.
The 20-year-old defending champion from Haryana’s Nidani village dished out a strong performance and literally toyed with her opponents to assure herself a third Asian Championship medal. She had won a bronze in the 2020 edition at home and won the 57kg title last year in Almaty.
Anshu, who became the first Indian woman wrestler to reach the World Championship final last year, began with a win over Uzbekistan’s Shokhida Akhmedova and followed that up with another dominating victory against Singapore’s Danielle Sue Ching Lim, who appeared at sea against her superior Indian rival.
Anshu hardly gave her rivals time to think or strategise as she pulled off move after move with ease to bamboozle them. She overpowered Mongolia’s Bolortuya Khurelkhuu in the semifinals, beginning with a four-point throw that ensued from a double-leg attack.
Easy take-downs and push-out points meant that the last-four stage bout ended in just two minutes and 12 seconds.
Manisha, who has been doing well in the 62kg category at domestic events for some time, lost her semifinal in just 40 seconds to Japan’s Nonoka Ozaki to bow out of the gold medal race. Ozaki trapped her in a leg-lace move early in the contest and finished the bout in a jiffy. This was after Manisha was off to a flying start, winning 9-0 against Kazakhstan’s Ayaulym Kassymova.
She will fight for bronze against Korea’s Hanbit Lee. Meanwhile, Swati Shinde (53kg) lost both her bouts by technical superiority to go out of the medal race.
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