Indian freestyle wrestler, Sakshi Malik knocked out the current world champion Petra Olli of Finland and made her way to the finals of the women 65g category freestyle at the Dan Kolov 2019 Wrestling meet in Ruse, Bulgaria.
In the semi-final match, the 26-year-old stunned Oili by 4-1. Sakshi will now wrestle against Henna Johansson of Sweden, in the final which is scheduled to take place on Friday night.
Sakshi will now be eyeing victory in the finals. Last year, she competed in her first Asian Games in Jakarta and lost her bronze medal bout to South Korea’s Hang Jungwon. The Indian wrestler at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games won a bronze medal, but the expectations were high from her.
India’s🇮🇳 Sakshi MALIK just upset reigning world champion Petra OLLI (FIN), 4-1. She’ll wrestle Sweden’s 🇸🇪 Henna JOHANSSON in tomorrow’s 65kg finals.
— United World Wrestling (@wrestling) February 28, 2019
Pro-Wrestling League played a major part for the preparation
The Olympic medalist recently credited Pro Wrestling League (PWL) for her development.
“From Season 1 onwards, PWL has given me the opportunity to wrestle against top foreign wrestlers, and that has helped me a lot in all major events in my career. Earlier, we got to fight with foreign wrestlers only when we went abroad, but since PWL has happened we have not only got opportunities to wrestle with them but also train with them,” she was quoted as saying by IANS.
SAKSHI (IND) takes out OLLI (FIN) in the semis!
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.#uww #wrestling pic.twitter.com/uQJPi7g8fE
— United World Wrestling (@wrestling) February 28, 2019
Sakshi Malik’s glowing career timeline
Sakshi Malik was born on 3 September 1992 in Mokhra village of Haryana’s Rohtak district. As her father revealed in an interview, Sakshi’s interest in wrestling evoked by seeing her grandfather who was also a wrestler. At the age of 12, she started her training at an Akhara in Chhotu Ram Stadium under a coach Ishwar Dahiya.
Sakshi Malik clinched a bronze medallist at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the 58 kg category and became the first Indian women wrestler to grab a medal at the Olympics. She is also the fourth female Olympic medalist from India.
Sunday smiles! 😀 pic.twitter.com/k2O3BCAFzn
— United World Wrestling (@wrestling) January 6, 2019
2018 has not been a much grateful year for Malik as she had some of her not so good performances – settling for a bronze at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast and failing to secure a medal at the Asian Games in Indonesia.
Focused for Olympics
Sakshi is now completely focused to prove herself and clinch a second successive Olympic medal for the country.
For the upcoming 2020 Olympics, she looks forward to playing better and outgrow her own past performances.
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