Xi’an (China): India’s Divya Kakran and Manju Kumari bagged bronze medals for the country in the women’s competition of the Asian Wrestling Championships here Thursday.
Asian Games bronze-medallist Kakran defeated Battsetseg Soronzonbold of Mongolia via fall in the play-offs of the 68kg category to finish on the podium. It was double delight for India as Manju also secured a bronze medal earlier in the day by beating Vietnam’s Thi Huong Dao 11-2.
However, Seema, who also made it to the play-offs, failed to register a hat-trick of bronze medals for India after losing to Valentina Ivanovna Islamova Brik of Kazakhstan 5-11 in the 50kg category.
Earlier in the day, while Kakran and Manju reached the bronze medal round after losing their respective semi-final bouts, Seema made it to the third-fourth place tie after winning her repechage bout.
Silver-medallist in the 69kg category at the 2017 edition of the Asian Championships in New Delhi, Kakran lost out on a place in the final of 68kg after going down to Feng Zhou of China 4-14 in the semifinals.
Kakran, who is returning to competitive wrestling after recovering from an ankle injury, came up with an impressive show to beat Hong Thuy Nguyen of Vietnam 10-0 in her quarterfinal bout.
In the 59kg category, Manju had lost to Battsetseg Altantsetseg of Mongolia 6-15 in the last four stage to settle for a place in the bronze-medal round. Manju had earlier beaten Kazakhstan’s Madina Bakbergenova 5-3 in the quarterfinals.
In the 50kg category, Seema defeated Meng Hsuan Hsieh of Chinese Taipei 10-2 in her repechage bout. She had earlier lost to Yuki Irie of Japan in the qualification round but made the repechage after her Japanese rival reached the final.
However, India’s campaign got over early in the 55kg and 76kg weight divisions when Lalita and Pooja lost their respective quarterfinal bouts to bow out of the event.