ALMATY: Olympic-bound wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Anshu Malik won their maiden Asian Championship titles after comfortable triumphs in their respective summit clashes here on Friday.
There was no stopping Vinesh in the absence of the Chinese and Japanese rivals as she cruised to the title without losing a point in the 53kg category. She has notched up seven podium finishes at the Asian meet over the years, including three silver medals before this edition.
The 19-year-old Anshu, who bagged the Tokyo Games quota here a few days ago, was yet again impressive as she underlined her progress in the senior circuit with yet another confident performance in 57kg. She won her final 3-0 and was never really troubled by Mongolia’s Battsetseg Altantsetseg, except for a double-leg attack initially in the bout. The Mongolian was mostly busy defending and Anshu kept her lead intact for gold.
Earlier in the day, Vinesh won by technical superiority against Mongolia’s Otgonjargal Ganbaatar and Taipei’s Meng Hsuan Hsieh while an injured Hyunyoung Oh from Korea did not turn up for the semi-final. Vinesh, who had won a bronze in the Delhi edition of the Continental championship last year, moved 6-0 up in the final and finished the bout in style by pinning her rival in the first period itself.
Anshu won her first two bouts by technical superiority against Uzbekistan’s Sevara Eshmuratova and Kyrgyzstan’s Nazira Marsbek Kyzy to reach the semi-final. Her quick moves and tremendous energy had her rivals gasping for breath.
Also reaching the final was Sakshi Malik, who is competing in 65kg, having missed her claim in her pet 62kg category. Competing much better than she was in the trials, the Rio Games bronze medallist won her first two bouts by technical superiority and was leading 3-0 against Hanbit Lee when the Korean suffered a knee injury and opted out of the contest. She will fight for gold against Mongolia’s Bolortungalag Zorigt.
Also doing well was Divya Kakran, who is competing in the 72kg category. She stunned reigning Asian Champion Zhamila Bakbergenova from Kazakhstan 8-5 on her way to the third round.