Young Indian wrestler Antim Panghal’s stellar campaign at the World Championships culminated in a bronze medal, a feat that also earned the country a 53kg quota for the Paris Olympics. The 19-year-old Panghal became only the sixth Indian woman to win a bronze medal at the World Championships with her victory over Sweden’s Emma Jonna Denise Malmgren, the two-time European champion. The high-scoring bout ended with a technical superiority victory for the Indian, who became the first Indian wrestler – male or female – to secure a quota for next year’s Games. Panghal raced to a 5-0 lead after starting with a quick push-out point. Malmgren fought with a takedown move and had the Indian in her grasp, but somehow the Indian wriggled free.
A successful two-legged attack from the Swede reduced the deficit further and another two-pointer meant Malmgren had taken a slim 6-5 lead with six straight points.
Just before the end of the first period, Panghal earned a point on the counterattack, making it 6-6. The second period belonged to Panghal, as the two-time U20 champion made move after move to consolidate her lead. The Swede put up fierce resistance, but the mighty Panghal used leg laces to quickly widen the gap and ultimately won the fight through technical superiority. Panghal’s bronze medal win concluded the Indian women’s campaign in the championships. This is the only medal India has won so far.
The Indians are competing under the UWW banner because the national federation WFI has been suspended for not holding elections on time.
Geeta Phogat (2012), Babita Phogat (2012), Pooja Dhanda (2018), Vinesh Phogat (2019, 2022) and Anshu Malik (silver) have previously won medals at the World Championships for India.
Early in the day, Indian Greco-Roman grappler Sajan Bhanwala lost in the opening round to a technically superior opponent from South Korea.
The 82kg wrestler was no match for Yang Sejin, losing 1-3 and being eliminated from the tournament against an opponent ranked one spot below the Indian at world number 18.
Indians have had a torrid time at the World Championships, with only Abhimanyu (70kg) taking the bronze medal in the men’s freestyle. He had lost to Arman Andreasyan of Armenia.
Gurpreet Singh, the 77kg wrestler, after being directly admitted to the pre-quarterfinal, lost his fight to world No. 1 Levai Zoltan of Hungary in just one minute and 12 seconds.
Zoltan, last year’s silver medalist at the 2022 World Championships in Belgrade, claimed victory in the fall.
However, Gurpreet can still make it to the bronze medal round via the repechage route if Zoltan goes all the way to the finals.
Mehar Singh, the 130kg Greco-Roman wrestler, lost too much in the qualifying round to be eliminated from the competition.
The 27th seeded Indian lost to 28th seed David Ovasapyan of Armenia on technical points 0-8 in just 39 seconds.
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