CHENNAI: Sarita Mor became the first Indian woman to defend the Asian title when she defeated Mongolian wrestler Shoovdor Baatarjav 10-7 in the final of the Asian Championships in Almaty on Thursday. She had won gold in the 2020 edition held in New Delhi. Her first medal from the meet came in 2017 when she pocketed silver in the 58kg.
However, the 25-year-old was not in good shape to begin with. She was down with fever for the past two days and lost the closely contested first bout 4-5 to the same Mongolian wrestler, who is a two-time World Championships bronze medallist. Up next was World No 2 in 59kg and local favourite Diana Kayumova. By then, Sarita had regained her confidence as well as the mojo.
She won the contest 11-0 by technical fall and defeated Nuraida Anarkulova of the host country by the same scoreline in the semifinal. “I was unwell for the past two days and the fever was still there when I started. It was tough but I was confident of staging a comeback as we have practised hard in the last one year,” Sarita told this daily.
Full story: newindianexpress.com