India’s Anshu Malik clinched a silver in the 57kg category at the Asian Wrestling Championships in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on Friday.

Anshu’s day started in dominant fashion with a series of wins by technical superiority, including her semifinal. In the final however, she came up against an even more powerful force in Tsugumi Sakurai of Japan and lost by fall in the gold medal bout. The 55kg world champion pinned Anshu within the first minute of the bout.

Elsewhere, Radhika also won a silver in 65kg category while Manisha bagged a bronze in the 62kg division.

Anshu, who was the defending champion at this event, breezed into the final with big wins to assure herself a third Asian Championship medal. She had won a bronze in the 2020 edition at home and won the 57kg title in Almaty last year.

Anshu, who became the first Indian woman wrester to reach the World Championship final last year, started round one with a win over Uzbekistan’s Shokhida Akhmedova. In the second round, she beat Singapore’s Danielle Sue Ching Lim. She overcame Mongolia’s Bolortuya Khurelkhuu in the semifinals, beginning with a four-point throw. Even the last-four stage bout ended in just two minutes and 12 seconds.

Round 1: IND - Anshu ANSHU 10-0 UZB - Shokhida AKHMEDOVA

Round 2: SGP - Danielle Sue Ching 0-10 IND - Anshu ANSHU

Semifinal: IND - Anshu ANSHU 11-0 MGL - Bolortuya KHURELKHUU

Radhika emerged victorious against Dariga Aben of Kazakhstan in her Round 5 bout to clinch the silver in her category with three wins out of four bouts. Her only defeat came against eventual champion Miwa Morikawa of Japan in her first bout.

Manisha, meanwhile, finished with bronze defeating Korea’s Hanbit Lee via fall.