India created history again on October 6 as 19-year-old wrestler Anshu Malik reached the world championship by defeating European champion Solomiia vynnyk. 19-year-old becomes the first woman from India to get the world championship and brings a Gold medal by winning the tournament.
Previously only four women wrestlers, Geeta Phogat(2012), Babita Phogat(2012), Pooja Dhanda(2018) & Vinesh Phogat (2019) from India, have won medals at the world’s level, and all of them have a bronze medal. After reaching the world level, India has a ray of hope to victory in Worlds and create another history by bringing Gold home.
From the beginning of the semi-final, she gripped control over the match and tackled every opponent with proper strategy and a sound mind.
After becoming India’s first woman wrestler at Worlds champion, she said, “This is extremely satisfying. It feels so good. I am so happy. What I could not do at the Tokyo Games I did that here. I fought each & every bout as my last bout. I trained very hard for this, I wanted to give my 100%, and I’ll fight in the as my last bout”.
If Anshu wins Thursday’s match, she will create another history. She also became the sixth Indian wrestler to make it into the world’s gold medal match. Previously only Bishambar Singh(1967), Sushi Kumar(2010), Amit Dahiya(2013), Bajrang Punia(2018) and Deepak Punia(2019) reached the world’s championship.To date, Sushil Kumar is the only Indian to become world champion in the 2010 Worlds championship.
Tokyo Olympics
In the Tokyo Olympics, Anshu Lost to Iryna Kurachkina in the first round and lost 57kg women’s freestyle repechage round to Valeria Kozlova.
World’s Championship
Anshu was smart with her manoeuvring. She accomplished take-down moves from Vynnyk’s left at least three times before finishing the battle with an exposure move. Since last year, the Nidani girl has been racing in the senior circuit and has made steady improvements.
She previously had no issue with Kazakhstan’s Nilufar Raimova, whom she defeated easily. Due to technical dominance, she also won against Mongolia’s Davaachimeg Erkhembayar by 5-1 in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, Sarita Mor will compete for bronze after falling 0-3 to defending European champion Bilyana Zhivkova Duodova of Bulgaria in the semi-finals. In her opening bout, Sarita had stunned defending champion Linda Morais 8-2 and advanced to the quarterfinals by defeating Germany’s Sandra Paruszewski 3-1.
Divya Kakran startled Kseniia Burakova with a win ‘by fall,’ but was defeated by Masako Furuich of Japan, the Under-23 world champion. Divya, the 2020 Asian champion, fought bravely in bouts and wriggled her way out of numerous tight positions. Still, rushed movements and excessive aggression cost her the quarterfinal against the Japanese.
Meanwhile, Kiran (76kg) advanced to the bronze play-off after winning her repechage round against Turkey’s Aysegul Ozbege, while Pooja Jatt (53 kilograms) fell to Ecuador’s Luisa Elizabeth Melendres. Kiran will compete against Samar Amer Ibrahim Hamza, the African champion for 2020. In the qualification battle, Anastasiia Lavrenchuk of Ukraine blew away Ritu Malik (68kg), only 15 seconds.
India Supports Anshu
Support of the whole nation is with Anshu Malik for her next match. The popularity & craze of uncommon sports is rising day by day, which is a good thing—after the splendid victory of Neeraj Chopra in the Tokyo Olympics in Javelin throw paved the way for new young sportsmen & women to participate in sports and play for India on the international level.
This will not only increase awareness among ordinary people about such sports but also the government will pay attention to them and provide them with world-class facilities to train them so that they can represent our nation internationally, which is essential for national pride
