Mixing strong defence with measured attack, young wrestler Antim Panghal won her second World Championship medal with a dominating 9-1 victory over U-23 World Champion Emma Jonna Denise Malmgren in the bronze play-off in Zagreb on Thursday, ensuring that the Indian contingent won't return empty-handed from the Croatian capital.
The Indian government has established two expert committees aimed at elevating the country's sports performance.
India will go unrepresented in five categories at the upcoming Zagreb Open in Croatia as Bajrang Punia, Antim Panghal and three others didn't give consent for their selection to the ad-hoc panel that announced a 13-member team on Tuesday.
The four-day selection trials began on Wednesday at NIS Patiala and SAI Regional Centre in Sonepat under the chairmanship of ad hoc panel member Bhupinder Singh Bajwa.
Besides emerging victorious in the selection trials against Alka Tomar, Geetika Jakhar also won a court battle against the Wrestling Federation of India to obtain her right to compete in the Olympic qualifier.
In a historic first for Indian women's wrestling, the country notched up a second medal at the ongoing World Championships after Geeta Kumari (55kg) added another bronze to the one clinched by her sister Babita in Edmonton, Canada.
The Indian won the medal in the 59kg class in the women's category at the Senior World Wrestling championships.
Anshu Malik settled for a silver medal after losing her 57kg final to 2016 Olympic champion Helen Lousie Maroulis but Sarita Mor grabbed her maiden medal at the big stage by winning the 59kg bronze, in Oslo, Norway on Thursday.
India's top woman wrestler Alka Tomar and young Anita won gold medals in the 59 kg and 67 kg freestyle categories respectively to make it a memorable day for the hosts at the Commonwealth Games. With Geeta winning India's first gold in woman's wrestling on Thursday, Alka and Anita made it a hat-trick of gold medals.
One of the two wrestlers in a medal contention, the 24-year-old Pooja executed a four-point throw in each of the two periods in the 57kg contest to deliver the best performance of her career.
Bajrang Punia's bid to become only the second Indian to win a gold medal at the World Championship fell flat, as a tactically superior Takuto Otoguro stunned the Indian in the 65kg final, in Budapest, on Monday.
Vinesh wins bronze, Pooja in line for second medal
2018 was largely forgettable for Sushil Kumar -- India's only double Olympic-medallist -- and Sakshi Malik -- the country's first and only woman wrestler to win a medal at the biggest stage.
'Sakshi's medal will do to women's wrestling what Sushil's 2008 Olympic medal did to wrestling in general.' 'It will make more and more families put their daughters into wrestling.' 'More and more young girls will fall in love with the sport and demand that they be taken to akhadas.'
There is a quiet air of confidence at the wrestling camp being held at Sonepat to prepare India's brightest wrestling prospects for the Asian Games in Incheon.
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