India’s Pooja Kadian, on Wednesday, clinched her country’s first ever gold medal at Kazan in the 75 kilogram women’s sanda category, beating Russia’s Evgeniya Stepanova in the final. Kadian entered the final beating Egypt’s Heba Abdelkader 2-0 in her last-four match.
Four other Indians also landed on the podium in the 14th edition of the World Championships. In the men’s sanda 48 kg category, Rameshchandra Singh Moirangthem won the bronze medal. Bhanu Pratap Singh also landed a bronze in the 60 kg sanda category. Rajinder Singh achieved the feat in the 90 kg category.
In the women’s 65 kg sanda category, Arunpama Devi Keisham also added her name to the medal tally, picking up India’s fourth bronze. Singh assured himself of a medal after defeating Brazil’s Lucas Luciano Queiroz Pereira 2-0 in his quarter-final match before losing to Russia’s Ali Magomedov by the same scoreline in the semis.
Rajinder Singh’s progressed to the semi-finals after defeating Russia’s Bozigit Ataev 2-1 before going down 1-2 to eventual gold-medallist, Iran’s Milad Arefi. Rameshchandra Singh came within touching distance of reaching the final. His semi-final match with China’s Wang Yongjie finished 0-0 but the latter was awarded a technical victory. Yongjie then went on to win the gold medal. Keisham defeated Switzerland’s Pricilla Staubli 2-0 in her last-eight encounter.
China currently lead the medal tally by some distance, and have 15 gold medals in their kitty so far. Iran are placed second and have collected eight gold medals so far.