Rookie Malik settles for silver
nNEWDELHI: Promising India teenage wrestler Anshu Malik had to settle for silver after losing to Nigeria’s Odunayo Adekuoroye 10-0 in the women’s 57kg freestyle event of the season’s first major competition, the Ranking Series in Rome on Thursday.
Malik had fought fearlessly in the earlier rounds but couldn’t replicate the form against Adekuoroye on her international debut in the senior category.
In the semi-final, she outclassed Jenna Rose Burkert of the US 10-0. In the quarter-final, the 18-year-old from Haryana beat Grace Bullen of Norway. But her most emphatic win came in the pre-quarterfinal where she defeated the 2019 world champion Linda Morais of Canada 10-4. Malik took the lead but Morais came back strongly to narrow the lead to 3-6. The Indian ruled the last 60 seconds to seal the deal. Against Bullen in the quarters, the Indian trailed 2-4 but with six seconds to go, she made a dramatic comeback to move into the semis. The final score was 4-4 in favour of Malik.
During the national selections trials in Lucknow earlier this month, Malik had upset the world championship bronze medallist Pooja Dhanda and Mansi Ahalawat to seal a berth for the Ranking Series and Asian Championships to be held in New Delhi from February 18-23.
Another promising teenager Sonam Malik, who had stunned Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik in the trials, wasn’t that lucky on her senior debut. The two-time cadet world champion lost in the opening round of the 62kg category to Macey Ellen Kilty of the US 10-0.
National champion Divya Kakran (68kg) too gave a good account of herself but lost to Jakarta Asiad champion Feng Zhou of China 2-8 in the semi-final.
In Greco-roman, national champion Gurpreet Singh entered the gold-medal round with ease defeating John Walter Stefanowicz of the US 5-0 in the semis. He will face Turkey’s Burhan Akbudak in the final.