It seems that Asian Champion Divya Kakran is going through a tough time. She suffered defeat twice within a month, losing to Ritu Malik in the inter-Railway a few days back, and now at the National Championship, where she was upset by Rajni from Uttar Pradesh. Not only this, the loss of experienced wrestlers Ritu Malik and Sakshi Malik and the emergence of many players who came from juniors to seniors were the biggest features of this championship. The National Women Wrestling Championship’s team title was won by Haryana, followed by Railway and Delhi in the second and third positions, respectively.
Four of the five final bouts were one-sided on the second day, indicating that the wrestlers felt a significant impact by the absence of this sport for nearly 11 months due to Covid-19. In the 53 kg final, Nandini of Maharashtra stood victorious against Delhi’s Mamta in the final after leading 8-0. Asian Champion Sarita Mor Maan proved to be a very attacking wrestler in the 59 kg category. She won gold by defeating Sanju Devi of Haryana on the basis of technical superiority. She applied the gut wrench technique four times in the final. It is interesting to note that she was once a defensive wrestler.
The 65 kg category final was won by Railway’s Nisha by defeating Monika from Rajasthan again by technical superiority. Nisha’s counter-attack and her dodging techniques were the centre of attention. Former CWG gold medallist Anita of Haryana won the 68 kg gold by defeating Rajni of UP by the Iranian technique and got a by fall victory. Haryana`s experienced wrestler Kiran defeated Himachal`s fastest growing wrestler Rani in the final by 5-4 and won gold.
Facing disappointment and resentment, not being able to maintain a good lead and making repeated mistakes out of desperation, Rio Olympics medallist Sakshi Malik lost to Sonam again. Sonam, a budding wrestler from Haryana, defeated Sakshi for the third time within a span of nearly a year. This was again a proud moment for Sonam who rose from junior to senior. However, this is a good sign for Indian wrestling. Few days back, star wrestlers like Narsingh Yadav, Amit Dhankad, Jitendra and Sarvan had a similar fate in the men’s national championship where many upcoming wrestlers came in the limelight.
At one point, Sakshi took a 4-0 lead, but after that Sonam’s powerful game and the use of the right technique at the right time changed all the equations. First, she reduced the lead by collecting one point each and then collected two points. Even this didn’t satisfy Sonam, who scored two more points. This bout was a little rough. Eventually, Sonam managed a big upset with a score of 7-4. Earlier, in the trial of the 2020 Asian Championships, Sonam had defeated Sakshi twice. The trial was organised two times.
Haryana wrestlers won four out of five gold medals on the first day and the fifth was won by Railway’s Pinki in the 72 kg category. Pinki broke Haryana’s dream of a clean sweep by defeating Naina by 7-2. Apart from this, in the 57 kg final, Anshu of Haryana defeated experienced Railway wrestler Lalita with ease. Anshu had recently won the only medal to be awarded to the country in the individual World Cup. In the 55 kg group, Haryana’s rising star Anju got the benefit of an injury by Bunty in the final and she won gold with a walkover in the final. Meenakshi from Haryana also defeated Hanni Kumari of Haryana to win the 50 kg gold. Haryana seems to dominate this particular weight category because previous champions—Vinesh, Ritu Phogat, Seema and Nirmala—were from the state and now both the women wrestlers who have reached the final in this weight category are also from Haryana.
