CHENNAI: Antim Panghal turned an otherwise lacklustre Indian challenge eventful when she clinched a bronze medal in the 53kg weight category at the World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia, on Thursday. The medal was India's first in the 2025 edition of the prestigious tournament. It was also Antim's second bronze at the Worlds. With this medal, she joined Vinesh Phogat as India's most successful woman wrestler in the World Championships.
The 21-year-old from Haryana, who had a forgetful Olympics in Paris last year, defeated Emma Jonna Denise Malmgren of Sweden 9-1 to pocket the medal. Incidentally, Antim defeated the same opponent in the 2023 edition to win her first bronze at the event. She had defeated the Sweden wrestler 16-6 two years ago.
India had a disastrous campaign at the Worlds before Antim added a new lease of life into it. Their biggest medal hope, Aman Sehrawat, the 2024 Games bronze medallist, had earlier been disqualified for being overweight. But Antim kept India's recent record of winning at least a medal intact. The woman wrestler, who also bagged a bronze medal at the 2023 Asian Games before finishing a disappointing 15th at the Paris Games, mixed caution with aggression to register a dominating win over her opponents in the medal bout.
Meanwhile, Manisha Bhanwala (62kg) went out of the bronze medal race after losing her repechage round 0-9 against Bulgaria's Bilyana Dudova earlier in the day. Similarly, India's Greco-Roman wrestler struggled at the meet with none of the four in action managing to win a bout.