Asian Championships: Anju, Harshita win silver, Sarita Mor loses in quarters

Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), April 14

The gold medal continued to elude Indian wrestlers at the Asian Championships with Anju and Harshita settling for silver medals even as Sarita Mor was eliminated after a shock defeat in her opening round here today.

Competing in a highly-competitive 53kg weight category, Anju, who had outclassed Vinesh Phogat in the selection trials, logged back-to-back wins by technical superiority against Philippines’ Aliah Rose Gavalez and Sri Lanka’s Nethmi Ahinsa Fernando. She faced some resistance from China’s Chun Lei before prevailing 9-6 in the semifinal.

In the final, Anju could not score even a single point and lost the match by technical superiority to North Korea’s Ji Hyang Kim.

Harshita conceded just three points en route the final, outclassing Uzbekistan’s Ozoda Zaripboeva by technical superiority (13-3) and beating

Kazakhstan’s Anastassiya Panassovich 5-0. However, she could not find a way to go past China’s Qian Jiang, losing the 72kg title clash 2-5.

However, World Championships medallist Sarita lost her quarterfinal bout 4-8 to Mongolia’s Gantuya Enkhbat. The 28-year-old was a medal favourite.

Manisha Bhanwala (62kg) and Antim Kundu (65kg) won bronze medals.