Pincky Balhara, on Tuesday, clinched the silver medal for India in kurash (a traditional martial art from Uzbekistan that resembles wrestling). She went down to Uzbekistan’s Sulaymanova Gulnor in the gold medal match.
Sulaymanova, eight years older to Pincky and one of the best in the sport, beat her 10-0 in the final. Pincky, who’d reached the final after wins of 5-0, 3-0 and 3-0, struggled against the 2017 world champion.
Pincky, a 19-year-old hailing from Delhi, is a two-time national silver medallist and one of India’s most promising judokas. In this year’s Junior Asian Championships, she won a gold medal in the women’s 52kg category.
The teenager, however, narrowly missed out on being a part of India’s judo contingent to Jakarta. Instead, she was put in kurash, wherein she won the biggest medal of her career so far.
Pincky, however, has already tasted success in the sport having won the bronze at the Asian Beach Games in Vietnam in 2016.
In the Asian Championships held in Pune this year, she finished third in kurash, prompting her selection for Jakarta.
