Dominating the proceedings in a depleted field, Olympic-bound wrestlers VineshPhogat and Anshu Malik won their maiden Asian Championship titles after comfortable triumphs in their respective summit clashes here on Friday.
There was no stopping Vinesh in the absence of the Chinese and Japanese rivals as she cruised to the title without losing a point in the 53kg category.
Vinesh has notched up seven podium finishes at the Asian meet over the years, including three silver medals before this edition.
The 19-year old Anshu, who bagged the Tokyo Games quota here a few days ago, was yet again impressive as she underlined her progress in the senior circuit with yet another confident performance in 57kg.
She won her final 3-0 and was never really troubled by Mongolia’s BattsetsegAltantsetseg, except for a double-leg attack initially in the bout.
The Mongolian was mostly busy defending and Anshu kept her lead intact for gold. Earlier in the day, Vinesh won by technical superiority against Mongolia’s OtgonjargalGanbaatar and Taipei’s MengHsuan Hsieh while an injured Hyunyoung Oh from Korea did not turn up for the semifinal. Vinesh, who had won a bronze in the Delhi edition of the Continental championship last year, moved 6-0 up in the final and finished the bout in style by pinning her rival in the first period itself.
Anshu won her first two bouts by technical superiority against Uzbekistan’s SevaraEshmuratova and Kyrgyzstan’s NaziraMarsbekKyzy to reach the semifinal.
Up against Altantsetseg, she was leading 9-1 when the referee awarded a ‘victory by caution’ to the Indian. The Mongolian was cautioned thrice.
Also reaching the final was Sakshi Malik, who is competing in 65kg, having missed her claim in her pet 62kg category.
Competing much better than she was in the trials, the Rio Games bronze medallist won her first two bouts by technical superiority and was leading 3-0 against Hanbit Lee when the Korean suffered a knee injury and opted out of the contest.
She will fight for gold against Mongolia’s BolortungalagZorigt.
Also doing well was DivyaKakran, who is competing in the 72kg category. She stunned reigning Asian Champion ZhamilaBakbergenova from Kazakhstan 8-5 en route the third round.