The wrestling queen of India Vinesh Phogat will start her Asian Wrestling Championships campaign on Friday morning. And guess what, fresh from a Rome Ranking series gold, Vinesh is once again drawn to meet Mayu Mukaida of Japan in the opening round.
The Japanese girl has been Vinesh’s nemesis, eliminating the Indian ace in the Xi’an Asian Championships and Nur-Sultan World Championships in 2019. Vinesh, contesting in the 53 kg category, is India’s biggest hope for a gold in women’s competition but she will have to play out of her skin to beat Mukaida in the quarter-finals.
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In 2019 World Championships in September Mukaida defeated Vinesh by 7-0. The margin was far bigger in the 2019 Asian Championships in China as Vinesh lost to Mukaida by 0-10 margin. Can Vinesh get third time lucky ? Can she defeat Mukaida in front of her home crowd ? Those are the answers every wrestling will look for on Friday.
Other than Vinesh, Rio Olympics medallist Sakshi Malik, Sonam Malik and Anshu will also look to try to impress in their respective categories.
Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik, although participating in the 65kg non-Olympic category, is expected to show her might after suffering an ignominious defeat at the hands of youngster Sonam Malik in the WFI selection trials last month. She has formidable opponents in Naomi Ruike of Japan and Ohyoung Ha to deal with. The 2019 Asian Games silver medallist and World Cup champion last year, Ruike poses a big threat for Sakshi, who is well aware that any adverse result here might end her Tokyo 2020 dreams conclusively.
Anshu Malik also holds some promise. The youngster won gold in the Asian Championships last year as a junior and thereafter bagged silver on her senior national team debut performance at the Rome Ranking series. Anshu will start against Nuraida Anarkulova of Kazakhstan. Risako Kawai of Japan, an Olympics and three-time world champion will also be in action in the category of 57kg and it will be interesting to watch how the Indian youngsters copes with the might of Kawai.
Known for her stunning win against Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik in the trials, Sonam Malik (62kg) is another big Indian hope even though she did not fare well in the Rome Ranking series, dropping out in the opening round. She will be starting the competition against 2018 Asian Championships bronze medallist Hanbit Lee of South Korea.
Other than this wonder-mom Gursharan Kaur making a comeback to the international arena will also be in action on Friday in 76kg category.
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Asian Wrestling Champions 2020 Full Schedule, India squad, Where to watch live: All You Need to Know
