Indian grapplers Radhika and Shivanee Pawar won silver and bronze respectively at the 2024 Asian Wrestling Championships in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on Saturday.
Radhika, who had won silver at the Under-23 Asian Championships in 2023, lost the gold medal match to Japan’s Nonoka Ozaki in the women’s 68kg category by technical superiority.
Radhika reached the final after a win against Kazakhstan’s Albina Kairgeldinova in the opening match and then beat home favourite Gulnura Tashtanbekova by pinning her down to reach the final.
Pawar, who was competing in the 50kg category, lost her quarter-final match to Ziqi Feng of China, but reached the bronze medal round when the Chinese wrestler made the final. There, Pawar beat Mongolia's Otgonjargal Dolgojrav 9-7 in a high-scoring contest to secure the bronze medal.
In the other categories, Tamanna (55kg) lost her qualification round match 0-9 to Japanese wrestler Moe Kiyooka. However, the latter making it to the final meant that Tamanna had a chance at a bronze medal, but she lost that contest 0-4 to China's Min Zhang.
Pushpa Yadav, who was also in contention for a bronze medal in the women’s 59kg, lost 8-11 to Kazakhstan's Diana Kayumova while Priya (76kg) also failed to get past Kazakhstan's Elmira Syzdykova in her bronze-medal match playoff.
