Sofia, Aug 20: Antim Panghal scripted history after clinching the women’s 53kg title and became the first Indian female wrestler ever to win the gold at the Under 20 Wrestling World championships.
In the final, Antim destroyed Kazakhstan’s Altyn Shagayeva, who is a U-20 Asian bronze medallist, in the final on Friday, using her counters to perfection.
She began with a double leg attack and then went for an outside head for another takedown. At the break, Antim had a 6-0 lead.
With the bout under control, the Tunis Ranking Series champion was happy to play out the three minutes and only scored one takedown.
Before Antim, six Indian wrestlers reached the finals at U20 World Championships, but it took the 17-year-old to win the country’s first-ever gold medal at the tournament.
“Everyone always said that Japan is the best,” Antim said. “All I wanted to do was beat Japan. I really love counters but here she was not attacking much so I had to initiate a few attacks.”
Antim, who got the Asian under-20 championships gold, U-17 Worlds bronze, an U23 Asian silver and the Ranking Series gold medal in Tunisia on her senior international debut last month – showcased her dominance throughout the tournament.
She first defeated the European champion, Olivia Andrich, by technical superiority (11-0) in pre-quarterfinals and then pinned Japan’s Ayaka Kimura in the quarterfinals within a minute.
In the semifinal, Antim crushed Ukraine’s Natalie Klivchutska, European under-20 bronze medallist, 11-2 to make her way to the finals.
India had two more wrestlers in the final on Friday but they failed to cross the Japan hurdle for the gold medal.
Tokyo Olympian Sonam Malik took the silver medal in 62kg as she was pinned by Japan’s Nonoka Ozaki, who is a 2018 Youth Olympics champion in 57kg and the reigning Asian champion and Worlds bronze medallist in 62kg, within a minute in the final.
Earlier, Sonam defeated Kazakhstan’s Tynys Dubek 10-0, Adaugo Nwachukwu of the USA 5-5 in quarterfinals and Kyrgyzstan’s Bermet Nuridin by fall in the semifinal.
Priyanka settled for the silver medal after going down to Japan’s Mahiro Yoshitake in the 65kg final.
Priyanka tried shooting for Yoshitake’s leg but she was countered by the Japanese with ease. She built on her 2-0 lead and extended it to 4-0 in the second period with a takedown before a go-behind and lace made it 8-0, the final score.
In the 57kg category, Sito fought throught the repechage to win the bronze after beating U20 European Championships bronze medallist Melda Dernekci of Turkey on points 11-5.
Reetika (72kg), who is U23 Asian champion, secured a bronze medal beats Zaineb Sghaier of Tunisia.
On Thursday, Priya Malik, Cadet world champion, bagged the silver medal at the World U20 Wrestling Championships 2022 in the women’s 76kg category.
In the 50kg division, Priyanshi Prajapati won bronze – her maiden medal at world stage- by beating reigning U23 Asian champion Munkhgerel Munkhbat of Mongolia.
India won a total of seven medals (one gold, three silver and three bronze) and finished second in women’s team rankings with total 160 points.
Japan took the team title with 230 points. The defending champion the USA finished third with 134 points.
