Anshu Malik becomes first Indian woman to win silver in World Wrestling Championship

Anshu Malik on Thursday scripted history by clinching a silver medal at the World Wrestling Championship in Norway. Sarita Mor, on the other hand, won the 59kg bronze, which was her maiden medal at the big stage.

Anshu, the reigning Asian champion, settled for a silver medal after losing her 57kg final to 2016 Olympic champion Helen Lousie Maroulis.

“It’s extremely satisfying. I am so happy. It feels so good. What I could not do at the Tokyo Games I did that here. I fought each and every bout as my last bout,” Anshu said after the final.

“The month after the Tokyo Games was very tough. I could not perform as I had wanted at the Games. I suffered an injury (elbow) and can’t explain how much pain I endured one month before the World championship.

“I trained hard for this, I wanted to give my 100 per cent and will fight final like my last bout,” Anshu, who had lost her first round bout and also repechage round at the Tokyo Olympics, said. 

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Sarita, on the other hand, clinched the bronze medal by winning 8-2 over Sweden’s Sara Johanna Lindborg in the bronze play-off. She stunned Lindborg with an early four-pointer and went on to add two more points to her tally with a quick take-down. She took a commanding 6-0 lead by the break and pulled off another breathtaking move to race to a 8-0 lead.

Only four Indian women wrestlers have won medals at the Worlds and all of them — Geeta Phogat (2012), Babita Phogat (2012), Pooja Dhanda (2018) and Vinesh Phogat (2019) — have clinched bronze. Sushil Kumar (2010) remains India’s lone world champion wrestler till date.