Divya delights
Wins silver, bronze for Karuna and Reena in Junior Asian Wrestling
Gold Coast CWG bronze medallist Divya Kakran had to settle for a silver medal after being too defensive in the final against nemesis Meerim Zhumanazarova while Karuna and Reena returned with bronze medals at the Junior Asian Wrestling Championship here on Thursday.
All five Indian girls in action reached the final round but Sangeet Phogat (59kg) and Shivani Pawar (50kg) lost their bronze-medal bouts. Sangeeta suffered a minor right knee injury during the morning session and it did affect her performance in the bronze-medal bout.
Divya was outplayed by the defending champion, losing her final in the 68kg category on technical superiority (011). The Indian girl, who had lost to the same Kyrgyzstan rival at this year’s senior Asian Championship, remained defensive, conceding point after point. She hardly attacked Meerim.
Divya had won her semifinal 6-0, a victory by fall, against China’s Man Zhang and won the quarterfinal without stepping onto the mat as Mongolia’s Purevtsetseg Ganbaatar did not turn up for the bout.
In the 59kg bronze medal bout, all eyes were on Sangeeta, the youngest sibling from the famous Phogat family, who was up against China’s Juanjuan Shi.
She stepped onto the mat limping and was far from her best, though she fought bravely in her 5-10 defeat.
“In my quarter-final bout, there was a gap in the mat. My foot stuck there and my knee got twisted. I did not have the option of giving up. I had to fight.
My father has told us, you die on mat but never concede your bout. The injury definitely played in my mind in the bronze medal match,” Sangeeta said.
She had lost her quarterfinal 1-2 to Uzbekistan’s Nabira Esenbaeva, a victory by fall.
Sangeeta is now targeting a good show at a tournament in Turkey, where she flies on Friday for training, and the World Championship.
“It is disappointing result but I am looking forward to the Worlds. The Phyisos in Turkey will assess my knee when I reach there tomorrow. I will be fine, it’s not serious,” she said.
In the 55kg bronze medal bout, Reena comfortably defeated Uzbekistan’s Khodicha Najimova 8-2 to claim a bronze. She lost her semifinal 6-8 to China’s Jiajing Hou after a dominating 14-4 win over Aizan Suiduova.