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  • Asian Wrestling Championship: Anshu Malik baggage silver, with a actuality verify in addition

    Only 25 seconds had handed within the last of the Asian Championship when Tsugumi Sakurai, higher physique tangled with Anshu Malik’s, mustered all of the power she may to wrench her opponent’s arms and throw her on the mat. Ten seconds later, she caught maintain of the Indian’s proper ankle.

    Then, she executed the armbar – taking maintain of Anshu’s arm and twisting it, thus placing immense stress on her shoulder and elbow. And earlier than Anshu may even understand what was occurring, she was pinned. It took simply 54 seconds for Sakurai to settle the matter.

    Not lengthy sufficient, maybe, for Anshu to grasp what had struck her however adequate to understand what awaits her going ahead within the 57kg weight class. The 20-year-old from Nidani, Haryana, has to this point hardly put a foot mistaken.

    The silver medal she gained on Friday meant Anshu now has medals of all colors within the Asian Championship, having gained the gold final yr and bronze the yr earlier than that. In her maiden look on the Worlds final October, she completed runner-up, turning into the primary Indian lady to succeed in the ultimate of the Championship.

    Asian Wrestling Championships: Indian Women finish their marketing campaign with 5 medals (2 Silver & 3 Bronze):
    Silver: Anshu Malik (57kg) & Radhika (65kg)
    Bronze: Sarita Mor (59kg), Sushma (55kg) & Manisha (62kg)
    PS: In final version, Indian Women wrestlers gained 7 medals (4G, 1S, 2B). pic.twitter.com/Lpc7aCaCa1

    — India_AllSports (@India_AllSports) April 22, 2022

    At the nationwide stage, there’s daylight between her and the remaining. In a really fast interval, Anshu has grown from being a promising junior to Indian ladies’s wrestling’s greatest star, main the contingent in absence of Vinesh Phogat, who hasn’t returned to aggressive wrestling after the Tokyo Olympics.

    Her rise, nonetheless, has been accompanied by an asterisk. Before Friday, a majority of her medals within the senior tournaments got here in occasions that wrestlers from Japan, China and North Korea – the powerhouses in ladies’s wrestling – had skipped, largely due to the pandemic.

    This doesn’t diminish any of her medals, particularly since as a rookie she needed to typically navigate via tough attracts. Friday’s last, nonetheless, was a reminder of how powerful it is going to get for Anshu going ahead. The Indian, competing in her first worldwide event because the Worlds final October, was hardly troubled en path to the ultimate, beating her three opponents – Uzbekistan’s Shokida Akhmedova, Singapore’s Danielle Lim and Bolortuya Khurelkhuu of Mongolia – by technical superiority, that could be a distinction of 10 factors.

    Outdone by velocity

    In the ultimate towards Sakurai, a much-anticipated affair between two wrestlers of the identical age, Anshu, recognized for her brute power, obtained undone by the Japanese wrestler’s velocity. There isn’t any disgrace in shedding to the Japanese, who’re thought of to be the gold customary in ladies’s wrestling.

    To put their dominance at these Championships in perspective, they gained seven out of the ten gold medals on provide in ladies’s wrestling. For lots of them, who’re nonetheless of their late teenagers, this was the maiden look on the senior Asian Championship; a frightful prospect for many who will face off towards them within the coming years.

    In 53kg class as an illustration, the place Phogat competes, 18-year-old Akari Fujinami, the reigning world champion, gained the gold medal with out conceding even a single level. In 62kg, a class through which Anshu’s shut pal and nationwide champion Sonam Malik, who’s out injured, normally competes, Nonoka Ozaki blitzed previous the sector to complete on high of the rostrum.

    One of Ozaki’s scalps was the eventual bronze medalist from India, Manisha, who had certified after defeating Rio Olympics bronze winner Sakshi Malik within the trials. In Anshu’s case, she was up towards a prodigious expertise who gained the world championship gold final yr within the 55kg class.

    Sakurai is now attempting to displace the legendary Risako Kawai – twice Olympic gold medalist, three-time world champion and four-time Asian champion – from the Japanese staff. If something, this means the depth of expertise in Japan.

    There’s an air of invincibility round them however Anshu’s coach Jagdish Sheoran isn’t too involved. “Anshu has beaten the Japanese girls in the past, in the junior and cadet events,” he says. “In her mind, they aren’t unbeatable.”

    Sheoran talks about one incident 4 years in the past, when Anshu had defeated Japan’s Natami Ruka within the last of the Asian Cadet Championship to underline his level. “After the final, the Japanese girl asked Anshu about her training methods. That shows how good she is,” Sheoran says.

    Since profitable the World Championship silver final October, Anshu and Sheoran nearly have been residing at their akhara inside a sports activities faculty in Nidani, recognizing each tiny flaw in her recreation and ironing it out in time for September’s Asian Games.

    Sheoran doesn’t give away a lot about their technique however says it’s designed to make her an much more attacking wrestler. It took 54 seconds for his or her plan to unravel on Friday. “But we’ll learn from this and come back stronger at the Asian Games,” Sheoran says.

  • How wrestling world championship finalist Anshu’s father saved her spirits excessive after Olympics

    On Wednesday night when Anshu Malik, 20, turned the first-ever Indian lady wrestler to enter the ultimate of a World Wrestling Championship with an 11-0 win over 2020 European silver medallist Solomiaa Vynnyk of Ukraine within the 57 Kg class, her father Dharamveer Malik may hardly management his feelings.
    Four Indian ladies wrestlers have received medals on the Worlds, all of them being bronze. Geeta Phogat (2012), Babita Phogat (2012), Pooja Dhanda (2018) and Vinesh Phogat (2019) have made the nation proud however Anshu has a chance to go a step forward.
    Two-time Olympic champion Risako Kawai is without doubt one of the massive names lacking from the championships, however Anshu received’t have it simple within the last towards Tokyo Games bronze medallist Helen Maroulis of America.
    The realisation of what his daughter may pull off has dawned on Dharamveer, who was a supply of power when Anshu returned with no medal from the Olympics.Having represented the Indian junior wrestling staff within the 1990’s, Dharamveer was compelled to retire following a knee damage. He had skilled how crushing failure may be. So Malik made certain his daughter’s shoulders by no means drooped even when issues didn’t go her means.
    When Anshu acquired residence from the Tokyo Olympics in August, her first Summer Games, Dharamveer ensured his daughter was welcomed like a champion.
    “Whenever I returned from international competitions without winning a medal, I would always feel dejected. But that has not been the case in Anshu’s career. I have always told her that a loss also teaches one something. She has put the loss against the Russian in the Olympics behind her. To see her become the only Indian wrestler to reach the final of world championships makes me a little emotional,” Dharamveer says.

    Anshu MALIK 🇮🇳 speaks after changing into India’s first-ever WW finalist at senior World Championships #WrestleOslo pic.twitter.com/ZZvgfVGp3o
    — United World Wrestling (@wrestling) October 6, 2021
    “It feels good to reach the final here. What I could not achieve in the Olympics, I have achieved here. The time after the Olympic loss was a bit tough as things did not go as I had aimed and could not achieve the level at Tokyo which I had prepared for. I also suffered from an elbow injury and trained in pain during the last one month or so. But my focus was to achieve what I could not achieve in Olympics. I was thinking to give my 100 percent here and fought every bout with this thought. It will be the same in the final against the American,” Anshu advised UWW.
    Whichever the color of Anshu’s medal on Thursday, it should get a satisfaction of place at residence. “Her medal will adorn the wall of our house like her other medals,” Dharamveer, who represented India within the World Cadet Championships in 1995, provides.
    Hailing from Nidani village in Jind district in Haryana, a spot well-known for producing wrestlers and boxers, a younger Anshu would take to wrestling after seeing her brother Shubham prepare on the CBSM Sports School on the village in 2012.
    The Haryana teenager would win a silver medal within the Asian Junior Championships in Taiwan in 2016 and a bronze in World Cadet Championships in Georgia in the identical 12 months. A 12 months later she would win the world cadet title.
    Seeing that his daughter had potential, Dharamveer, who owns six acres of farmland, would additionally shuttle between Lucknow and Sonepat, venues of nationwide camps, to be by Anshu’s aspect.

    “Whatever I could do, I did for Anshu’s love for wrestling. There were some hard times too but seeing her win would make me forget all those days,” he says.
    The teenager would prepare underneath coach Jagdeesh Sheoran on the CBSM Sports School. The coach says she is a fast learner.“During training, Anshu would make mental notes of various moves like Bhandhaj and Kheech apart from Gatta Pakad and would also try minute variations in these attacks,” Sheoran remembers.
    She turned the third Indian feminine wrestler to seal the Tokyo Olympics quota with a 12-2 win over Shokida Akhmedova within the Asia Oceania Olympic qualifier at Almaty, Kazakhstan.
    But she had suffered a again damage throughout the rating collection in Rome. At Tokyo, Anshu misplaced to double world championship medallist and eventual silver medallist Iryna Kurachkina of Belarus within the first spherical earlier than dropping to Rio Olympics silver medallist Valeria Koblova of ROC 1-5 within the repechage spherical.
    The Russian ultimately misplaced to Bulgaria’s Evelina Nikolova within the bronze medal match, a wrestler whom Anshu had defeated earlier in Mattio Pellicone Ranking Series in Rome this 12 months.
    “Against Koblova, Anshu had managed to defend till the last minute of the bout. In the last 40 seconds of the bout, letting Koblova make a leg attack cost Anshu. After the Olympics, when Anshu came home, we worked on her leg attacks as well as defence, which she showed in Oslo,” Sheoran says.
    On Wednesday, Anshu first scored a 15-5 win over junior world champion Nilufar Raimova of Kazakhstan earlier than scoring a 5-1 win over Asian silver medallist Erkhembayar Davaachimeg of Mongolia to enter the semis. In the semis, Anshu saved the Ukrainian Solomiaa Vynnyk at bay with fixed neck holds, thereby not letting her assault.
    Anshu would ultimately win the bout 11-0 on technical superiority. “The way Anshu has avoided getting caught in leg attacks against the likes of Daavachimeg and Vynnyk means that Anshu’s defence has improved. She made good counter moves after defending the leg attacks and did not let counter attacks happen here. Anshu has the advantage of having more power as compared to the American in the final and she will aim to fight with an attacking intent,” shared nationwide coach Kuldeep Malik.
    Coach Sheoran too believes that the American wrestler is a bit like Anshu as she too depends on leg assaults. “The American works on the upper body attacks before she makes a quick leg attack to unsettle the opponent,” Sheoran says, hoping his ward stays as much as the duty of taking up a wrestler with Olympic medal pedigree.

  • Indian kids face stiff check at Worlds, expectations excessive from Anshu, Sarita

    The kids within the Indian wrestling contingent will search to realize big-stage expertise within the absence of star gamers whilst Anshu Malik’s efficiency shall be adopted keenly on the World Championships, beginning right here on Saturday.
    The confirmed performers equivalent to Bajrang Punia, Ravi Dahiya, Vinesh Phogat and Deepak Punia are all lacking from the squad both on account of damage points or lack of preparation.
    In their absence, it’s a large probability for kids like Ravinder Dahiya (61kg), Rohit (65kg), Yash Tushir (74kg), Pruthviraj Basaheb Patil (92kg) and Anirudh Gulia (125kg) to get first hand expertise of senior-level World Championship after making a mark on the junior worlds.
    But, the expectations shall be excessive on Anshu Malik (57kg), who’s the one wrestler on the prestigious event from amongst those that competed on the Tokyo Olympics.
    She regarded a bit rusty throughout the trials however the arduous employee she is, the Nidani woman is anticipated to do effectively.
    Ever since she progressed to the senior circuit, she has delivered a podium end at 5 of the six worldwide occasions, barring on the Olympic Games.
    She now is aware of the sort of efficiency that’s required and if she is ready win a medal, she is going to firmly set up herself within the 57kg class.

    Sarita Mor can be one of the skilled wrestlers within the ladies’s squad. She is conscious what it takes to win a medal at this stage. She appeared robust throughout the trials.
    She has the power and approach and will probably be extra of psychological toughness or lack of it that may resolve her destiny.
    She has gained titles on the Asian stage however World Championship is the place she has all the time struggled. She has made 5 makes an attempt on the senior stage and as soon as on the U-23 stage however might by no means come near the rostrum rounds.
    It shall be fascinating to see how Sangeeta Phogat fares, qualifying for the event past her personal expectations on comeback. It is just not going to be straightforward for her since she is returning to circuit after three accidents, publish a knee damage.
    Divya Kakran, after lacking the Tokyo Olympics, have to be wanting to but once more show herself. She will compete within the 72kg class as an alternative of her regular 68kg, through which seasoned Ritu Malik will symbolize India.

    Apart from them, the Indian squad is stuffed with youngsters like Hanny (50kg), Pooja Jatt (53kg) and Bhateri (65kg).
    The males’s squad is a totally new-look group. Only Satyawart Kadiyan (97kg) is the one who has expertise, whereas for others, will probably be their first tryst on the senior worlds.
    Shubam would have been prospect within the 57kg however he failed a dope check and has been dropped.
    It shall be a bonus for the Indian contingent if Greco-Roman model wrestlers are capable of clear just a few rounds. They have been struggling for lengthy on the circuit and want higher coaching to emerge contenders.

  • Arjuna Award: Ravi Dahiya, Deepak Punia nominated together with Anshu, Sarita

    The Wrestling Federation of India has nominated Olympic-bound and World Championship medal-winning wrestlers Ravi Dahiya and Deepak Punia for the Arjuna award together with fast-rising Anshu Malik.
    Deepak had received a silver medal on the 2019 World Championship in Nur Sultan whereas Ravi had bagged a bronze together with a ticket to Tokyo.
    Dahiya has emerged as a powerful medal contender within the 57kg class on the Games, the place he’s seeded fourth.
    He had just lately defended his Asian title in Almaty earlier than profitable a silver medal on the Poland Open.
    The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) additionally nominated the 19-year-old Malik, who has received 5 medals in six tournaments together with the Asian title since beginning her stint within the senior circuit final 12 months.
    Sarita Mor, who missed out on Olympic qualification however received the Asian title in 59kg in Almaty, has additionally been nominated for the Arjuna.
    “All four wrestlers have done well and deserve recognition, so we have sent their application,” WFI Assistant Secretary Vinod Tomar advised PTI.
    “We have additionally nominated coaches Vikram, Kuldeep Malik and Sujeet Maan for the Dronacharya award.
    It could also be famous that nationwide ladies’s coach Kuldeep Malik is already a recipient of Dhyanchand award, so his utility will not be thought of for Dronacharya.
    Sujeet had received 4 Asian medals in his wrestling profession earlier than he joined Railways as a coach.
    He was additionally related to the Indian males’s freestyle staff as nationwide coach between 2011 to 2019.
    In the life-time achievement class (Dronacharya), the WFI has nominated Jagroop Rathi, R Okay Hooda and R S Kundu.
    Hooda is secretary of Haryana wrestling affiliation.
    For the Dhyanchand award, WFI has despatched names of Sajjan Singh, Jai Prakash and Dushyant Sharma.
    The 89-year-old Sajjan Singh had competed within the 1960 Rome Olympics.

  • Anshu Malik overcomes fears to e-book Tokyo-berth

    In his youthful days, Dharamveer Malik would often characteristic within the Indian junior wrestling groups. He competed on the 76 kg class on the World Cadet Championship in 1995, however was compelled out of the game as a result of a knee damage.
    That would nonetheless, not be the final time a member of the Malik-household would grapple at a global stage. On Saturday, Dharamveer’s 19-year-old daughter Anshu grew to become the fifth Indian wrestler to seal a Tokyo Olympics quota on the Asia-Oceania Olympic qualifiers in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
    “The day Anshu started wrestling, the dream was always to compete at the Olympics. This is just one of the many steps to winning an Olympic medal,” 45-year-old Dharaveer says to The Indian Express.
    “She had injured her back last month (during the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series in Rome) so she will be a bit relieved now that she has the quota. But a new journey starts for her today.”
    A local of the Nidani village in Jind district of Haryana – a village well-known for a sports activities college that has produced quite a few nationwide and worldwide boxers and wrestlers – Anshu, who competes within the 57kg occasion, was initially drawn in the direction of tutorial endeavours.
    READ | Anshu, Sonam exercise on airport terminal, battle journey fatigue and ache to qualify for Tokyo Olympics
    While her brother Shubham had already been coaching as a wrestler, Dharamveer urged her to pursue the game as properly. Four years later, in 2016, she’d go on to win a silver medal on the Asian Junior Wrestling Championship, together with a bronze on the Cadet-level continental occasion in the identical yr.
    By 2017, she was the World Cadet Champion – a title her coach Jagdish Sheoran asserts was an necessary milestone in her profession.
    “She was still academically inclined. She would learn techniques quickly, but spent most of her time studying,” Sheoran remembers. “When she won that title though, her focus shifted. She started to spend more time in training. Around six hours daily.”
    A Junior Asian title adopted in 2019, after which got here her first senior nationwide title earlier this yr. She scored wins over World Championship bronze medallist and compatriot Pooja Dhanda, twice, 2019 World Champion Linda Morais, two-time European Champion Grace Bullen of Norway and World Championship bronze medallist Evelina Nikolova.
    Anshu Malik with coach Jagdish Sheoran
    Wins like these got here on account of creating a extra all-round strategy to her fashion in coaching.
    “Like any young wrestler, she’d only think about attacking,” nationwide coach Kuldeep Malik had mentioned to this newspaper in an earlier interview.
    “We had to spend a lot of time on her defense to stop her from losing points on leg attacks. She’s a quick learner, but her greatest advantage is that she has a fearless approach to matches.”
    There had been just a few extra classes in retailer for her shortly earlier than she took the journey to Almaty. After her damage in Rome, she travelled again to her village to recuperate. But her coach used the break as a possibility to go over ways together with her.
    “It also gave us some time to make her understand some of her mistakes, like wrestling passively after taking a lead. It helped her in the trials last month,” Sheoran says.
    “Like any wrestler, she had a fear of getting injured again or aggravating the injury but she realised that getting a chance to wrestle in the Olympics is rare. But the real work will begin now.”
    In Tokyo, the sphere of opponents can be larger than something she’s confronted up to now. The likes of reigning World Champion Risako Kawai of Japan, World Championship silver medallist Rong Ningning of China, and two-time World bronze medallist Iryna Kurachkina of Belarus are the highest contenders for a medal within the 57kg class. Sheoran believes that Anshu must grasp some extra strikes to have a shot on the medal in Tokyo.
    “Now that she has earned the quota, the next task will be to study all the possible opponents. She’s a quick learner, but we’ll have to add some variations to her style to give her a chance against some of the world’s best,” explains Sheoran.
    At residence, Anshu’s mom Manju has already ready the grappler’s favorite feast.
    “She loves desi ghee poodas and gond ke laddu. She took two boxes with her to Almaty,” she explains. “If she wins an Olympic medal, we might distribute those sweets in the entire village.”

  • Anshu, Sonam exercise on airport terminal, battle journey fatigue and ache to qualify for Tokyo Olympics

    For a couple of hours on Friday, the Tashkent airport terminal become a warm-up corridor for Anshu Malik and Sonam Malik. During a nine-hour layover earlier than persevering with their journey to Almaty, Kazakhstan, the Indian wrestlers become their sweat-suits – wore a few layers, in truth – and began jogging across the ready corridor.
    They sweated buckets, starved themselves for nearly 18 hours, reached their vacation spot at midnight, underwent COVID-19 exams and slept just for a few hours. On Saturday, they wakened drained from the journey, competed – in Sonam’s case, by ache – within the Asian Olympic Qualifiers and sealed their spot for the Olympic Games, to be held in July-August.
    For the nationwide champions, the highway to Tokyo was something however clean.
    “When they left Delhi on Friday morning, both of them weighed roughly a kilogram above their weight,” Sonam’s father Raj says, referring to the burden classes they compete in – 18-year-old- Sonam wrestles within the 62kg class, Anshu, 19, in 57kg.
    It is regular for wrestlers to weigh a kilo or so over their class restrict. Usually, they drop the surplus weight earlier than the weigh-in on the day of their bouts. In Sonam and Anshu’s case, nonetheless, that will have been reducing it too superb.

    Congratulations to our girls wrestlers, Sonam Malik and Anshu Malik for successful a quota every in #Tokyo2020. Both have proven outstanding performances within the qualifying matches. I want them the easiest in representing India 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/i8hssmMRVb
    — Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) April 10, 2021
    The Wrestling Federation of India had booked their flights to Almaty that will attain the vacation spot simply hours earlier than their opening bouts on Saturday. That would have left them with little or no time to chop the surplus weight, and even when they’d’ve by some means managed that, the duty would have left them drained.
    “They wore layers of warm clothes and started running at the Tashkent airport. They did not eat anything until after their bout to make sure they were within their weight limit,” Anshu’s coach Jagdish Sheoran says.
    Raj provides: “It helped that both were together. They are like sisters, they understand each other that well.”
    Foes to pals
    Anshu and Sonam are inseparable. Now.
    Before they grew to become pals, although, they have been foes on the mat. During their early days, each competed within the 56kg class and confronted off in tournaments twice. In 2016, Sonam beat Anshu at a state-level inter-school meet, and some months later, Anshu exacted her revenge in a state-level cadet meet.
    The nature of their rivalry was so fierce that even Sonam and Anshu’s fathers, Raj and Dharamveer respectively, acquired drawn into it.
    “A couple of times, even we got face-to-face with each other,” says Raj, who even alleged his daughter Sonam was a sufferer of dishonest. Today, he laughs it off. “It happens sometimes in the heat of the moment.”
    By late 2016 although, the rivals have been chosen for a nationwide cadet camp in Lucknow and have been made to share a room. That’s after they grew to become pals, and as their bond grew stronger, the fathers too determined to return to an association.
    “It was evident to everyone that these two girls were better than most others,” Sheoran says. “They had become friends too by staying in the camp. So it didn’t make sense to make them compete against each other.”

    Sonam Malik phases a surprising comeback, beats top-seeded Kazakh wrestler 9-6 after being 6-0 all the way down to qualify for the #Tokyo2020 #Olympics #wrestling https://t.co/FrWD9DtzMz
    — Mihir Vasavda (@mihirsv) April 10, 2021
    Raj says the 2 households agreed to place them in two totally different weight classes. “Instead of fighting between themselves for one gold medal, they could win a gold medal each. The decision benefitted both,” he says.
    From that second, Anshu and Sonam’s rise has been meteoric: they’ve dominated all ages class proper as much as the senior degree the place they gained their maiden nationwide titles earlier this 12 months.
    “It was fate that both of them qualified for the Olympics on the same day,” Raj says.
    Playing by ache
    Anshu was largely thought of a favorite to clinch the Tokyo quota regardless of the panic attributable to the last-minute journey preparations. The Asian Championship bronze medalist lived as much as the billing, successful every of her bouts by technical superiority, which is by a margin of 10 factors.
    It wasn’t so simple for Sonam, whose class was divided into two teams. She defeated Jia Long, a rising Chinese star, in her opening bout, dominated Taipei’s Hsin Ping Pai within the second spherical earlier than staring slowly towards Asian silver medalist and prime seed Ayaulym Kassymova of Kazakhstan.
    Kassymova’s warp pace stunned Sonam and earlier than she might even realise, the house favorite had raced to a 6-0 lead whereas the Indian wrestler clutched at her knee and cried in ache. At that second, it regarded prefer it was recreation over for Sonam.
    Somehow, although, she ignored the ache and used her immense higher physique power to stage a outstanding comeback, successful 9 factors in a row to settle the matter. As she stepped off the mat, the youngest Indian lady wrestler to qualify for the Olympics burst into tears. Sonam ultimately pulled out of the ultimate towards Long and the extent of her damage is but to be identified.
    “She played through pain,” Raj says. “But that’s what Olympics are about, after all. The pain and sweat have only made this achievement sweeter.”