Jakarta : Vinesh Phogat on Monday created history by becoming the first Indian woman wrestler to win a gold medal at the Asian Games, brushing aside her rivals with remarkable ease in the 50kg category here.
Vinesh was a medal-favourite in her category and was likely to face stiff competition from Japan’s Yuki Irie whom she outplayed 6-2 in the final.
It is surely a ground-breaking achievement for the 23-year-old firebrand Haryana wrestler, who is connected to Dangal-famed Phogat family.
Putting behind her heart-breaking loss at the Olympics two years ago, Vinesh began her victorious campaign with a revenge win against Chinese Yanan Sun against whom she had suffered that terrible leg injury which cut short her journey in Rio.
This time Vinesh did not give her opponent any chance and came out a dominant winner with a 8-2 score.
In the next bout she brushed aside the challenge of Korea’s Hyungjoo Kim by technical superiority. She ended the bout with a four-point throw.
Vinesh’s semifinal lasted just 75 seconds as she moved into the final with a ‘fitley’. She was already up 4-0 and then rolled over her opponent thrice with leg-lock.
The gold also enabled Vinesh to achieve another feat as she became the only woman wrestler to win two medals in back-to-back Asian Games.
Vinesh had earlier won a bronze medal in the 48kg category at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.
Vinesh also won back-to-back gold medals in Glasgow and Gold Coast Commonwealth Games this year.
Earlier, Sakshi Malik paid the price for being over-defensive and was left to fight for bronze in the 62kg category.
CWG silver medallist Pooja Dhanda will also fight for bronze after losing her semi-final in the 57kg.
Pinki was the only girl to not reach the medal round as she lost her first round bout in the 53kg category against Mongolia’s Sumiya Erdenechimeg. She could not score a single point and lost her bout by technical superiority.
Sumit Malik, the last remaining Indian in the men’s freestyle, bit the dust in the 125kg category as he could not resist his opponent even for two minutes, losing by technical superiority.
Thus, the men’s campaign finished with just one gold medal from Bajrang Punia (65kg).
Sakshi, playing her first Asian Games, was hardly challenged before her semifinal round as she easily won against Thailand’s Salinee Srisombat (10-0) and Ayaulym Kassymova (10-0).
She was up 4-0 in her semi-final bout against Kyrgyzstan’s Aisuluu Tynybekova but lost six points in a row by the end of first period.
She led 7-6 with a throw but became too defensive with 10 seconds to go. The Kyrgyz took advantage and pushed Sakshi out of the mat to pocket the match-wining two points.
Pooja lost just one point en route the semifinals as she outclassed Thailand’s Orasa Sookdongyor (10-0) and Uzbekistan’s Nabira Esenbae (12-1) but lost the last-four clash on technical superiority to Korea’s Myong Suk Jong.
She, however, said interactions with Sushil Kumar leaves a positive impact on her.
“I listen to Sushil ji a lot. Whatever he suggests I take note. In 2014 when I won bronze in Incheon he said, ‘don’t worry, whatever happens, happens for good. May be you have something bigger in store’. I always remember this message from him,” Vinesh said.
The Indian gymnastics contingent also ensured a disappointing day in office as they failed to qualify for the finals in the men’s team event, finishing ninth with a score of 229.950, 0.35 points behind Iran.
The men’s team comprised 2010 bronze-medallist Ashish Kumar, Rakesh Patra, Gaurav Kumar, Yogeswar Singh and Siddharth Verma.
At the Aquatics centre, India made the finals of the 4x200m finals but the quartet of Shrihari Natraj, Saurabh Sangvekar, Avinash Mani and Neel Roy ended 7th overall with a timing of 31.90sec
India’s men’s hockey team began its title defence at the Asian Games in style as they fired 17 goals past Indonesia in their first Pool A match to register their biggest win in the continental competition here on Monday.
Youngsters Dilpreet Singh, Simranjeet Singhand Mandeep Singh scored a hat-trick each, while the other goals came from Rupinder Pal Singh, Akashdeep Singh, SV Sunil, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Harmanpreet Singh, Lalit Upadhyay and Amit Rohidas, even as Indonesia couldn’t come up with a goal.
With the Indian forwards showcasing top form, puncturing Indonesian defence hooter-to-hooter, the match eventually turned out to be one-sided as PR Sreejesh-led squad demonstrated different variations to score goals.
The team recorded 43 per cent conversion rate as they scored 10 goals off the 28 field attempts while they converted 6 of the 11 penalty corners earned. One goal came off a penalty stroke.
“This was exactly the kind of start we were looking for. We were not chasing any record of winning by maximum goals but a 17-0 margin in the first match instills confidence especially for the youngsters.
