Home
The 17-year-old Antim Panghal has scripted history as she became the first Indian wrestler to bag the elusive gold medal at the Under-20 World Wrestling Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria.
The teen sensation battered Atlyn Shagayeva of Kazakhstan 8-0 in 53kg category gold medal match to achieve this feat.
Antim – who got the Asian under-20 championships gold, Worlds under-17 bronze, an Asian under-23 silver and the Ranking Series gold medal in Tunisia on her senior international debut last month – gathered her points through four takedowns, including three in the first period.
She beat Germany’s Amory Andrich, a European under-20 champion, 11-0, Ayaka Kimura of Japan by fall and European under-20 bronze medallist Natalia Klivchutska of Ukraine 11-2 in the semifinals.
There is an interesting anecdote behind Rohtak-born girl. Her parents didn't want any more daughters because they already had three and that is why they decided to name their fourth daughter ‘Antim’.
Meanwhile, Tokyo Olympian Sonam Malik clinched the silver medal in 62kg and Priyanka won silver medal in 65kg after losing their gold medal bouts respectively.
India bagged a total of six bronze medals and one silver in Men's freestyle category finishing 3rd in team rankings. In Women's freestyle, India has one gold, three silver and one bronze.
Sonam 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, who has recovered from injury issues, got past Kazakhstan’s Tynys Dubek 10-0, Adaugo Nwachukwu of the USA 5-5 and Kyrgyzstan’s Bermet Nuridin ‘by fall’ in the semifinal.
Sito (57kg) got a bronze medal.
On Thursday, Priya Malik (76kg) took the silver, while Priyanshi Prajapat (50kg) got the bronze.
Priyanka settled for the silver medal after going down to Japan’s Mahiro Yoshitake 8-0 in the 65kg summit clash. Reetika (72kg) secured a bronze medal.
