Vinesh wrestles to historic gold, fancied Sakshi falters
The 23yearold becomes first Indian woman to win an Asian Games gold medal
monwealth Games gold medallist, Vinesh stunned Yuki Irie of Japan 6-2 in 50kg freestyle category final before a sizable crowd that included two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar at the GBK Centre.
From the start, the 23-year-old from Haryana dominated proceedings. Vinesh tested Irie early, pushing her twice and then swiftly opened a four-point lead. She then kept her cool and opted to not attack.
With 90 seconds to go, Vinesh chose to attack and twice tried to catch hold of Irie’s leg but to no avail. Though her last-minute defensive tactics cost her one point, Vinesh denied Irie a chance to attack. Soon after conceding one more point, when Iri managed to push her out of the mat, Vinesh again surprised the Japanese by locking her from behind to get two vital points.
Vinesh had made her intentions clear right from her first bout when she defeated China’s Sun Yanan, an old rival and a tough competitor, 8-2 on technical superiority in the pre-quarter finals. She proved too tough for South Korea’s Kim Hyungjoo in the quarter-finals winning 11-0 and outclassed Dauletbike Yakhshimurtova of Uzbekistan 10-0 in the semi-finals.
“I wanted to change the colour of my medal and I was adamant for this even before I landed in Jakarta,” said Vinesh, after her second gold medal in the past five months. “I didn’t even think for a silver medal even when I was going for my final bout.”
Vinesh was out of action for a long time after the 2016 Rio Olympics due to knee injury. “Sushil Kumar had told me never feel disappointed in your life even if you don’t get a medal as that is destiny but keep working hard,” said Vinesh.
“I learnt a lot when I was away from mat. I take a lot of risks in life I would say. I have lot of selfbelief and you can achieve anything if you have that.”
MALIK’S DAMP SQUIB
Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik’s dream of winning an Asian Games medal was extinguished quickly as she went down 2-12 to Korea’s Sim Jong Rim in her repechage bronze medal bout in the 62 kg category. In the 57 kg category, Pooja Dhanda lost 1-6 to Katsuki Sakagami of Japan in the bronze medal contest. India’s last medal hope Sumit (125 kg) was also dashed as he lost to Davit Modzmanashvili of Uzbekistan 0-2 in the repechage bout.