Nishio: India secured two more wrestling medals at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games on Saturday after Antim Panghal and Aman Sehrawat powered their way into the women’s 53kg and men’s freestyle 57kg finals, respectively, while Sagar Jaglan and Deepak Punia will compete for bronze in their respective categories.
Antim produced a dominant run through the knockout rounds to become only the third Indian woman wrestler to reach an Asian Games final. The Hangzhou 2022 bronze medallist began her campaign with a 9-0 victory over Kazakhstan’s Shugyla Omirbek before dispatching Uzbekistan’s Sakibjamal Esbosynova 8-0 in the quarterfinals.
She then defeated China’s Jin Zhang 6-1 in the semifinal, recovering from a 0-1 deficit to score six unanswered points and book her place in the title clash.
Antim will face Japan’s Moe Kiyooka in the final at 4:02 p.m. IST. Her qualification for the summit bout puts her alongside Geetika Jakhar and Vinesh Phogat as the only Indian women to have reached an Asian Games wrestling final.
Aman also produced a comeback victory to secure his place in the men’s 57kg freestyle final.
The Indian began the day with a 20-9 technical superiority win over Japan’s Yamato Ogawa before beating Kazakhstan’s Nurdanat Aitanov 12-1 in the quarterfinals. In the semifinal against Tajikistan’s Aiaal Belolyubskii, Aman trailed 2-6 after the opening period but turned the contest around spectacularly, scoring 12 points in the second period while conceding only two to win 14-8. He will wrestle North Korea’s Chong Song Han for gold at 2:44 p.m. IST.
For Sagar Jaglan and Deepak Punia, the day ended with bronze-medal opportunities after both suffered defeats in the later stages of their respective draws.
Sagar, who had beaten Mongolia’s Tulga Tumur-Ochir 8-1 in the pre-quarterfinals, was stopped by Iran’s Yones Emamichoghaei in the quarterfinals, losing 0-10 by technical superiority. He returned to the mat in the bronze-medal bracket and defeated Uzbekistan’s Razambek Jamalov 7-3 to earn a place in the bronze-medal bout in the men’s freestyle 74kg category.
Deepak opened his men’s freestyle 97kg campaign with a 12-2 victory over China’s Zhou Junpeng before advancing to the semifinals via forfeit when Hong Kong China’s Li Wui Fung Vincent failed to appear for their quarterfinal.
His semifinal against Uzbekistan’s Sherzod Poyonov went down to the wire, with Deepak eventually losing 8-9. He will now have an opportunity to finish the competition with a bronze medal.
India therefore has two wrestlers fighting for gold and two more still in contention for bronze, giving the country four medal opportunities across the wrestling programme.
(IANS)
