India could win its second gold medal of the ongoing 18th Asian Games on the wrestling mat after Vinesh Phogat came up with a domineering performance to reach the finals of the women’s 50kg freestyle category in Jakarta on Monday.
The two other Indian women in fray on the day, Pooja Dhanda and Sakshi Malik, will challenge for the bronze medals after they lost their respective semi-final bouts in the 57 and 62 kg categories. Men’s 125kg freestyle wrestler Sumit is also in the hunt for a bronze medal.
But the morning session definitely belonged to Vinesh, who dominated all her three opponents. The 23-year-old began her campaign with an 8-2 win over China’s Sun Yanan. It was the same opponent against whom the Indian had suffered an horrible knee injury in the Rio Olympics and needed almost an year to make a competitive comeback.
However, on Monday, she had very little trouble in over powering the Chinese and that win set the tempo for the remaining two bouts. She then packed off Korea’s Kim Hyungjoo 11-0 on technical superiority in the quarters and needed just 1 minute and 15 seconds to beat Uzbekistan’s Yakhshimurat Dauletbike by technical superiority to set up a final against Japan’s Yuki Irie.
Earlier, Rio Olympics bronze medallist Malik was just seconds away from the final in the 62kg category as she had a slender 7-6 lead against Kyrgyzstan’s Tynybekova Aisuluu. But the Indian tried to play safe and Aisuluutook advantage of the approach to push her opponent towards the end of the mat and gain two points for takedown to win 9-7.
Malik, who had won her earlier bouts on technical superiority, will now take on North Korea’s Rim Jong Sim for the bronze medal.
Youngster Pooja Dhanda, however, was forced into surrender in the semi-finals of the 57kg category by North Korea’s Jong Myong Suk on technical superiority. She will now face Japan’s Sakagami Katsuki in the bronze medal play-off.
In men’s 125kg freestyle event, Sumit lost his opening bout 10-0 against Iran’s Parviz Hadibasmanj but would challenge for bronze medal after winning his repechage bout against Kazakhstan’s Oleg Boltin 7-0. He will now face Uzbekistan’s Davit Modzmanashvili.
