The
19-year-old
Anshu,
the
reigning
Asian
champion,
controlled
the
semifinal
from
the
beginning
and
won
by
technical
superiority
in
the
57kg
category
to
go
into
history
books.

Only
four
Indian
women
wrestlers
have
won
medals
at
the
Worlds
and
all
of
them
—
Geeta
Phogat
(2012),
Babita
Phogat
(2012),
Pooja
Dhanda
(2018)
and
Vinesh
Phogat
(2019)
—
have
clinched
bronze.
Anshu
also
became
only
the
sixth
Indian
ever
to
make
the
Worlds
gold
medal
match
after
Bishambar
Singh
(1967),
Sushil
Kumar
(2010),
Amit
Dahiya
(2013),
Bajrang
Punia
(2018)
and
Deepak
Punia
(2019).

Anshu
MALIK
🇮🇳
speaks
after
becoming
India’s
first-ever
WW
finalist
at
senior
World
Championships

#WrestleOslo
pic.twitter.com/ZZvgfVGp3o

—
United
World
Wrestling
(@wrestling)

October
6,
2021

India
has
only
one
world
Champion
in
Sushil
to
date
and
Anshu
can
create
another
history
on
Thursday.
Anshu’s
win
also
ensured
India’s
first
medal
from
this
edition
of
the
event.
Anshu
was
clever
with
her
moves.
At
least
thrice,
she
effected
take-down
moves
from
the
left
of
Vynnyk
and
finished
the
bout
with
an
exposure
move.

The
Nidani
girl
started
competing
in
the
senior
circuit
only
from
last
year
and
has
made
steady
progress
since
then.
She
also
had
qualified
for
the
Tokyo
Olympics.

Earlier,
she
was
hardly
troubled
by
Kazakhstan’s
Nilufar
Raimova,
whom
she
beat
by
technical
superiority
and
later
outwitted
Mongolia’s
Davaachimeg
Erkhembayar
5-1
in
the
quarterfinals.

Seasoned
Sarita
Mor
shocked
defending
champion
Linda
Morais
8-2
in
her
opening
bout
and
beat
Germany’s
Sandra
Paruszewski
3-1
in
the
quarterfinals.
Up
against
the
reigning
European
champion
from
Bulgaria
Bilyana
Zhivkova
Duodova,
Sarita
fought
her
heart
out
but
lost
0-3.
She
will
now
fight
for
bronze.

The
reigning
Asian
champion
had
a
tough
opening
bout
against
the
2019
World
champion
from
Canada
but
came
out
trumps
with
a
tactical
8-2
win
in
the
pre-quarterfinals.
A
quick
take-down
move,
followed
by
an
expose
together
with
some
superb
defence
put
Sarita
7-0
ahead
by
the
time
the
first
period
was
over.

The
only
scoring
point
she
conceded
was
a
take-down
move
in
the
second
period.
She
did
not
let
Linda
play
her
game,
keeping
her
in
lock
positions.
Later,
the
quarterfinal
against
Paruszewski
turned
out
to
be
a
tougher
bout,
in
which
the
two
wrestlers
were
largely
restricted
to
standing
fight
which
took
a
lot
out
of
them.
There
was
only
one
point-scoring
move,
a
takedown
effected
by
Sarita
late
in
the
match
and
that
sealed
the
outcome.

In
the
72kg,
Divya
Kakran
stunned
Kseniia
Burakova
with
a
‘win
by
fall’ but
lost
by
technical
superiority
to
Japan’s
Under-23
world
champion
Masako
Furuich.
The
2020
Asian
champion
Divya
fought
her
heart
out
in
both
the
bouts
and
wriggled
out
of
difficult
positions
umpteen
times
but
hurried
moves
and
over-aggression
cost
her
the
quarterfinal
against
the
Japanese.

Meanwhile,
Kiran
(76kg)
won
her
repechage
round
against
Turkey’s
Aysegul
Ozbege
to
reach
the
bronze
play-off
but
Pooja
Jatt
(53kg)
lost
her
repechage
by
fall
to
Ecuador’s
Luisa
Elizabeth
Melendres.

Kiran
will
face
2020
African
champion
Samar
Amer
Ibrahim
Hamza.
Ritu
Malik
(68kg)
was
blown
away
by
Ukraine’s
Anastasiia
Lavrenchuk
in
the
qualification
bout
that
lasted
only
15
seconds.
It
seemed
Ritu
was
carrying
a
knee
injury.