Indian wrestler Pinki secured the coveted gold medal after beating Mongolia’s Dulguun Bolormaa in the women’s 55kg final at the Asian Championships in New Delhi on Thursday.
Pinki edged out Bolormaa 2-1 in the summit clash at the KD Jadhav Indoor stadium to become the third Indian woman to win gold in the history of the tournament.
She had defeated Uzbekistan’s Shokida Akhmedova by fall in the opening round before losing the next bout against Japan’s Kana Higashikawa. However, Pinki won her semifinal bout against Marina Zuyeva 6-0.
In an exclusive interview with WrestlingTV, Pinki stressed the fact that she was happy with her win but she could have been done better. She said, “it was a tough match against Dulguun and I could have done better.”
“The elbow injury which I suffered in the previous games made me play cautiously and not take too many risks.”
The 23-year-old wrestler clinched her first Senior Asian Championships Gold after an impressive performance. Now with the 2020 Asian Olympic Qualifier scheduled next month, Pinki is eyeing for an Olympic quota.
She said, “it was a good game in the finals and now I will be looking to qualify for the Games and that was also the reason for not taking too many risks during my finals.”
However, it will be very difficult for her to qualify for the Olympics as there is no quota for women 55kg wrestling (the category Pinki plays in). In the 53kg category, Vinesh has already qualified for the Games. So her only option is to move up to the 57kg category.
In only two quotas up for grabs from the Asian Qualification Tournament, Pinki will not only face challenges from her Asian counterparts but also from Indian wrestlers. Anshu who plays in the 57kg category was the silver medallist in the Rome Ranking Series 2020 and Pooja Dhanda is another challenger who will cut down her weight from 59kg to 57kg for a chance of Olympic qualification.
The next challenge for Pinki will be the 2020 Asian Olympic Qualifier scheduled from March 27-29 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
