Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday congratulated Indian wrestlers who won medals at the U20 Junior World Wrestling Championships in Belgrade, Serbia. This campaign in Sofia, Bulgaria is India’s most successful tournament in history as they ended with 1 gold, 4 silver and 11 bronze medals. While Antim Panghal became the first woman grappler to win a gold medal in the Junior World Wrestling Championship.
“Our wrestlers make us proud again! Congratulations to our team on winning 16 medals (7 each in Men’s and Women’s freestyle and 2 in Greco-Roman) at the U20 World Championships. This is India’s best-ever performance. It also shows the future of Indian wrestling is in safe hands!” PM Modi tweeted. In the qualification round, Antim Panghal defeated the German wrestler 11-0. In the quarterfinal, the Japanese were shocked when Antim defeated the Japanese grappler by fall. In the semi-final, she easily defeated a Ukraine wrestler and in the final, she defeated a Kazakh wrestler.
With this, the Indian Junior Women Wrestling Team clinched the runner-up trophy with 160 points, Japan stood in the first position with 230 points and the USA were third with 124 points. For India, Antim won gold in 53 Kg, Sonam and Priyanka bagged silver medals in 62 and 65 Kg respectively while bronze medals were won by Sito and Reetika in 57 and 72 Kg respectively.
While Rohit Dahiya fought a tough bout to defeat Ukraine’s Ruslan Abdiiev 8-7 in men’s 82kg Greco Roman bronze medal match, Sumit had a relatively easier finish with a 6-3 win over Turkey’s Mert Ilbars in the 60kg division. Out of the 16 medals bagged by India, 7 came in the men’s freestyle category while the women matched them with as many medals including a gold medal as well. The Greco-Roman wrestlers Rohit Dahiya and Sumit added two bronze medals to India’s tally.
