Asian Wrestling Championships: Gold medal for Divya Kakran, Pinki and Sarita Mor

Divya Kakran on Thursday won a gold medal at the Asian Wrestling Championships after a dominant show in which she won all her bouts by fall, including against junior world champion Naruha Matsuyuki.

In a stunning display of power wrestling, Divya won all four bouts in the five-wrestler 68kg category, as the competition was fought in the round-robin format. 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.

Her defence looked a bit shaky against the Mongolian but she still managed to pin her rival. In the third round, Divya was up against Uzbekistan's Azoda Esbergenova. She went up 4-0 with brilliant consecutive rolls and then pinned her opponent to finish it off in just 27 seconds.

Indian wrestler Pinki also secured the coveted gold medal after beating Mongolia's Dulguun Bolormaa in the women's 55kg final at the Asian Championships here on Thursday.

Pinki edged out Bolormaa 2-1 in the summit clash at the KD Jadhav Indoor stadium to become the third Indian woman to win gold in the history of the tournament.

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 semifinal bout against Marina Zuyeva 6-0.

Sarita Mor eked out a 3-2 win over Battsetseg Atlantsetseg of Mongolia in the women's 59kg final to clinch the gold medal.

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.