Indian wrestlers Sarita Mor (59kg), Pinki (55kg) and Divya Kakran (68kg) won gold medals in their respective weight categories on day three at the Asian Championships in New Delhi on Thursday.

Sarita eked out a 3-2 win over Battsetseg Atlantsetseg of Mongolia in the women’s 59kg final to clinch the gold medal. The 23-year-old edged out Atlantsetseg in the summit clash at the KD Jadhav Indoor stadium.

Sarita, competing in her first Asian event since winning a silver in 2017 in 58kg, won her first two bouts by technical superiority against Madina Bakbergenova (Kazkhstan) and Nazira MarsbekKyzy (Kyrgyzstan) before winning 10-3 against Japan’s Yuumi Kon.

Pinki secured the coveted gold medal after beating Mongolia’s Dulguun Bolormaa in the women’s 55kg final. Pinki edged out Bolormaa 2-1 in the summit clash.

She had defeated Uzbekistan’s Shokida Akhmedova by fall in the opening round before losing the next bout against Japan’s Kana Higashikawa. However, Pinki won her semi-final bout against Marina Zuyeva 6-0.

Earlier in the day, Divya Kakran became the second Indian woman to win a gold at the Asian Wrestling Championships after a dominant show in which she won all her bouts by fall, including the one against junior world champion Naruha Matsuyuki.

Her event was following a round-robin format since the number of competitors was less than eight.

Wrestling in front of the home crowd, Kakran defeated wrestlers from Japan, Mongolia and Vietnam to claim the top medal.

She began the day with a victory against Albina Kairgeldinova of Kazakhstan. Next was Delgermaa Enkhsaikhan of Mongolia.

With two wins under her belt, Kakran defeated Azoda Esbergenova of Uzbekistan and set up a virtual final against Matsuyuki.

In the other final involving an Indian wrestler, Nirmala Devi finished with silver medal after going down narrowly to Japan’s Miho Igarashi in the 50kg final.

Nirmala, a 2010 Commonwealth Games silver medallist, lost 2-3 to Igarashi in the summit clash.

The Haryana wrestler had defeated Mongolia’s Munkhnar Byambasuren 6-4 and Uzbeskitan’s Dauletbike Yakhshimuratova by technical superiority in the earlier rounds.

Navjot Kaur had become the first Indian woman to win a gold medal at the Asian Championships when she triumphed in 2018 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan in 65kg.

Indian grapplers have now won four gold medals at the event in New Delhi so far. Sunil Kumar had won gold on opening day in the men’s Greco-Roman category.

(With PTI inputs)