India¡¯s Promising Young Wrestlers Win 6 Gold In U-15 Asian Championships

Indian wrestlers continued their dream run as they clinched six gold medals at the U-15 Asian Wrestling Championships in Taichung, Chinese Taipei.

After a storming start on Friday when India's promising young wrestlers won two gold, they followed it up with six more on Saturday. Led by 2019 cadet world champion Komal (39kg), the gold rush took India's tally to eight gold medals at the championship.

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While Komal, credited with being her country's new rising star didn't disappoint as she wrestled to gold in 39 kg category, Saloni (33kg) and Babli (36kg) also impressed as they came up with strong performances to bag gold medals.

It was about to get better for the Indian contingent as freestyle wrestlers continued to shine on Day 2 as Akash got past Daiki Ogawa of Japan in the 48kg category. Akash¡¯s quick reflexes saw him offer little room to his Japanese opponent and cruise to an 8-3 win.

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Debutant Udit Kumar brought home a silver in 57kg to add to the bronze he won earlier in the year at the Cadet World Championships. With Kapil also winning a bronze in 52kg, all six Indian freestyle wrestlers in the squad won a medal each. This saw the Indian lead the team rankings list with 125 points, followed by Kazakhstan with 120.

The Greco-Roman, which has traditionally not been the strongest for India, proved to be the biggest hunting ground as all the four wrestlers won medals.

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Ankit Gulia defeated Korganov of Kazakhstan to win the gold in the 68kg category, while Chirag Dhalia secured the gold in the 75kg category by winning both his bouts. The other two Greco-Roman medals came in 62kg and 85kg as Sumit and Arshdeep Singh won a silver each.

On the evidence, the future of Indian wrestling looks bright as it hs been in the past. The young brigade is showing early promise and potential which bodes well for us.