CHENNAI: Manisha Bhanwala and Mansi Ahlawat train at the Sir Chhotu Ram Stadium in Rohtak, Haryana. Always proving to be quality sparring partners for each other, most of the time, they are up against each other to find a place in the national squad in the 62kg weight category.
In March last year, Mansi won a close bout in the selection trials held to pick the national team for the Olympic Games Qualifiers (Asian and World). Unfortunately, Mansi couldn't qualify for the Paris Games. Early this month, Manisha returned the favour by beating Mansi in the trials held to select the team for the 2025 Asian Championships in Amman, Jordan.
"It's a healthy rivalry I will say," Mandeep Singh, who coaches the duo, told this daily. Adding further, the coach said, "It's not not the case only with Manisha and Mansi as in our academy we have at least two good wrestlers in each weight category. Sparring with good partners keeps you ready for any challenge and in that way Mansi and Manisha help each improve."
It did help Manisha at the Asian meet as she outclassed her seeded rivals one after another to clinch a gold medal in the 62kg on Friday. The yellow metal was also India's first in the tournament so far.
The world No 10 Manisha was unseeded in the event but that hardly mattered as she won her qualification bout 11-0 against Tynys Dubek of Kazakhstan. She then registered a comprehensive win by a fall against world No 2 Hanbit Lee of Korea in the quarterfinal.
The semifinal bout against Kalmira Bilimbek Kyzy of Kyrgyzstan, the No 3 seed, was no different as she won the match 5-1 to storm into the final. The final against Ok Ju Kim of North Korea, world No 7, turned out to be the toughest bout Manisha has had but in the end she won the contest 8-7.
"Manisha is always focussed and knows 62kg is a competitive division as it's also an Olympic weight category. She won a bronze each in the 2022, 2023 and 2024 editions of the Asian Championships. The gold after three bronze is really what she was aiming for," said the coach.
Bronze for Antim
Competing in her first international event after a disappointing show at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Antim Panghal, India's first U20 world champion, bagged a bronze medal in the 53kg weight category. The Haryana wrestler, seeded third for the continental tournament, started with a 10-6 win over Jin Zhang of China in the quarterfinal but lost 10-0 against her No 2 seed Japanese rival, Moe Kivooka in the semifinal.
The 20-year-old then made a strong comeback in the bronze medal bout to beat Meng H Hsieh of Chinese Taipei (10-0) by technical superiority. The contest ended in the first 24 seconds of the second period.
Other Indian women wrestlers — Neha Sharma (57kg), Monika (65kg) and Jyoti Berwal (72kg) — in action on Friday could not reach the medal rounds.
India have so far won seven medals in the tournament. The Greco-Roman wrestlers from the country bagged two bronze while women grapplers won a gold, a silver and three bronze. All eyes will be on the Tokyo Olympian Deepak Punia when the men's freestyle competition begins on Saturday.
