Asian Wrestling Roundup: Navjot Kaur’s historic gold helps India finish with eight medals

India returned from the Asian Wrestling Championships in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan with a haul of eight medals with one gold and one bronze medal, finishing ninth in the medal tally.

Navjot Kaur became the first Indian woman wrestler to win gold in the senior continental championship in the 65kg freestyle category while Vinesh Phogat took home the silver in the 50kg category. Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik also won a bronze in the 62kg freestyle category.

Here are all the medal winners for India and how they performed

1)Navjot Kaur

Navjot Kaur became the first Indian woman to stand at the top of the podium at the senior Asian Wrestling Championships. She was impressive throughout her final bout against Japan’s Miya Imai where she recorded a convincing 9-1 win.

The Punjab wrestler started slowly in her category, losing her first group stage match against the very opponent she dominated in the final. Kaur lost her opener narrowly to Imai 4-4 in her first match before turning it around in the final.

The 28-year-old has been around the wrestling circuit a while, as she had previously won silver at the Asian Championships in 2013 and also has a bronze from the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Kaur, who insists that she took up wrestling only to live her elder sister Navneet’s dream, was in tears as she was paraded around the mat on her coach’s shoulders with the tri-colour draped on her back.

2)Vinesh Phogat

Vinesh Phogat clinched India’s only silver after a tough 2-3 loss in the final of the 50kg category against China’s Chun Lei.This was her second consecutive silver at the continental event, following her impressive run to the podium last year in New Delhi on her comeback from a major knee injury.