Indian wrestlers Manju Kumari and Divya Kakran made the country proud by bagging bronze medals in the women’s competition of the Asian Wrestling Championships on Thursday.
2018 Jakarta Asian Games bronze-medallist Kakran beat Mongolia’s Battsetseg Soronzonbold through fall in the playoffs of the 68 kg category to finish third on the podium.
Manju then doubled the delight by securing yet another bronze medal by defeating Thi Huong Dao of Vietnam 11-2 earlier in the day.
Asian Wrestling Championships: Divya Kakran wins Bronze medal (68 kg) after beating Mongolian wrestler.
— India_AllSports (@India_AllSports) April 25, 2019
Its 2nd medal for India today. #AsianWrestlingChampionships pic.twitter.com/eOWP79hl9T
However, having also made it to the play-offs, Seema failed to register a hat-trick of bronze medals for India after Kazakhstan’s Valentina Ivanovna Islamova Brik defeated her 5-11 in the 50 kg category.
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While on one hand, Manju and Kakran reached the bronze medal round after losing the semi final bouts, Seema could only make it to the 3rd-fourth place tie after clinching the repechage bout.
Kakran, who had been a silver-medallist in the 2017 Asian Championships’ 69kg category, missed a place in the final of 68 kg category after bowing out to China’s Feng Zhou 4-14 in the semi finals.
She was making a return to the competitive wrestling after recovering from an serious ankle injury. The 21-year made a solid comeback in the quarter final bout to defeat Vietnam’s Hong Thuy Nguyen by 10-0.
-- Advertisement --Playing in the 59 kg category, Manju had been beaten by Mongolia Battsetseg Altantsetseg by 6-15. As a result, she had to suffice with a place in the bronze-medal round instead of final. Earlier in the quarterfinals, she had earlier defeated Madina Bakbergenova of Kazakhstan 5-3.
Elsewhere, Seema beat Chinese Taipei’s Meng Hsuan Hsieh by 10-2 in the repechage bout’s 50 kg category. The wrestler had earlier lost to Japan’s Yuki Irie in the qualification round. Nonetheless, she made it to the repechage while her rival made it to the final.
However, India’s campaign in the 55kg and 76 kg weight divisions was not as eventful as Lalita and Pooja respectively bowed out of their quarterfinal bouts early.
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