Antim Panghal created history by winning Gold in the Under-20 Wrestling World Championship. She has become the first Indian female wrestler to do so. She defeated Atlin Shagayeva of Kazakhstan 8-0 in the final of the 53kg competition.
This is the first time an Indian woman has won gold in the 34-year history of the Under-20 Wrestling World Championship.
Meanwhile, Panghal’s journey in the Under-20 Wrestling World Championship has been quite spectacular. She has won all her matches by a huge margin. Panghal defeated Andrich of Germany 11-0 by technical superiority in the qualification round. After this, she defeated Japanese wrestler Ayaka Kimura in the quarterfinals. Panghal defeated Natalia Klivchustka of Ukraine by a huge 11-2 margin in the semi-finals.
Moreover, Antim Panghal is a resident of Bhagana village in the Hisar district of Haryana. She was born in 2004 and is only 17 years old. Panghal has a total of four sisters and she is the youngest. Panghal won bronze at the Cadet World Championships in 2021. After this, she won the silver medal in the 2022 U-23 Asian Championship.
Apart from Panghal, Pappu Yadav won gold in 1992, Ramesh Kumar and Palwinder Singh in 2001, and Deepak Punia won the Under-20 Wrestling World Championship in 2019. Home Minister Amit Shah has also tweeted and congratulated Antim Panghal on winning the gold.