After competing in the Asian Wrestling Championships 2024 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, the Indian team left with nine medals in total. The squad’s overall performance in the event was shown by the four silver and five bronze medals that made up this set. One remarkable feature of the six-day competition, which concluded on Tuesday, was the participation of thirty Indian wrestlers in various categories. There were ten competitors in each category: women’s freestyle, men’s Greco-Roman, and men’s freestyle wrestling.
The Asian U20 champion Udit won a silver medal in the men’s freestyle division, competing in the 57 kg weight class. On the competition’s first day, Abhimanyu (70 kg) and Vicky (97 kg) also won bronze medals in their respective weight classes. Moving to women’s wrestling. Shivanee Pawar won a bronze in the 50 kg class, and Radhika won a silver in the 68 kg division.
Anju and Harshita added silver medals to their total in the 53kg and 72kg weight classes, respectively. Anju, however, had to settle for a silver medal after losing to Ji Hyang Kim of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the championship match. In a similar vein, Harshita won a silver medal in the women’s 72kg category after falling to Qian Jiang of China in the gold medal match.
Despite India’s strong presence in the tournament, some wrestlers faced setbacks. Sarita Mor, a World Championships bronze medallist, and two-time Asian champion exited the tournament without a medal after losing in the quarter-finals of the women’s 57kg category.
Comparatively, Indian wrestlers won 14 medals in total at the 2012 Asian Wrestling Championships in Amman, including 1 gold, 3 silver, and 10 bronze. While Antim Panghal earned a ticket for the 2024 Olympic games in Paris after earning bronze in the women’s 53kg division at the 2023 World Championships, the focus is still on securing more Olympic quotas for wrestling in India.
