Antim wins second World Championship medal

Zagreb, Sep 18 (PTI) Mixing strong defence with measured attack, young wrestler Antim Panghal won her second World Championship medal with a dominating 9-1 victory over U23 World Champion Emma Jonna Denise Malmgren in the bronze play-off here Thursday, ensuring that the Indian contingent won't return empty-handed from the Croatian capital.

Since the first day of competition, the Indian wrestlers have looked a hapless lot following Aman Sehrawat's shock disqualification, but Antim made sure that the country's medal winning tradition at the prestigious tournament continued.

The 21-year-old had won a bronze in the 2023 edition as well but since the 2024 Olympic Games, where she faced not just a heartbreaking first round exit but also faced the humiliation of deportation, she has been under pressure.

Malmgren is a very aggressive wrestler but Antim stood her defence, never letting the Swede gain any momentum.

Antim went for single leg attacks at the beginning but Malmgren thwarted both attempts, using her immense strength. Antim got on board when the Swede was put on clock for passivity.

Malmgren employed a head lock which Antim turned into a scoring opportunity as he went behind after wriggling out of a tough position and pushed her rival down fora take down.

She kept a 3-0 lead at the end first of period.

Malmgren went for a right leg attack but Antim defended well and effected another take down to consolidate. A cushion of 5-0 and mere 35 seconds to defend, Antim found a four pointer to literally finish the bout in her favour.

She had left the mat in tears after her semifinal defeat but flashed a bright smile Thursday after her confident win.

The two-time U20 champion (2022, 2023) has made a smooth transition from junior to senior level. She has made the 53kg category, once owned by very successful Vinesh Phogat, her own.

At just 21, she already has two bronze at senior World Championship, one bronze at Asian Games to go with a silver and a bronze at Asian Championships, apart from two gold at Grand Prix level events.

Only Vinesh has won two Worlds medal in her illustrious career while other women achievers -- Alka Tomar, Geeta Phogat, Babita Phogat, Pooja Dhanda, Sarita Mor and Anshu Malik -- have won one each.

Manisha Bhanwala went out of the bronze medal race after losing her repechage round 0-9 to Bulgaria's Bilyana Dudova.

Poor show from Greco Roman wrestlers ======================== India's Greco Roman wrestlers continued to struggle at the international stage as none of the four grapplers in action could win a bout Thursday.

Let alone winning a round, the Indian wrestlers struggled to make even one scoring move on the day. Anil Mor's was the worst performance as his challenge lasted a mere 13 seconds in the 55kg weight class.

Up against world number one Eldaniz Azizli from Azerbaijan, the Indian was all at sea as Azizli got him into a head lock position and flipped him multiple times to end the bout in a jiffy. Later Azizli lost his semifinal, shutting the repechage door on Anil.

In the 77kg, Aman lost his first round by technical superiority to Nao Kusaka but since the Japanese reached the final, the Indian got a repechage round against Ukraine's Ihor Bychkov.

In the 82kg, Rahul lost 1-7 to Kazakshtan's Almir Tolebayev as he was the only Indian who lasted full six minutes on the mat.

In the heaviest weight category of 130kg, Sonu was also outplayed 0-8 by Croatia's Marko Koscevic.

Both Almir and Sonu were eliminated as their vanquishers failed to make the gold medal bout. PTI AT AT AH AH