Vinesh Phogat makes India proud, secures silver at Asian Wrestling Championships

Giving India a perfect Holi guft, wrestler Vinesh Phogat secured a silver medal at the Asian Wrestling Championships on Thursday in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The star wrestler lost a close bout by 2-3 against China’s Chun Lei in the finals of the women’s 50 kg freestyle event.

The 2014 Asian Games bronze medallist came back strongly to take the lead after trailing by 1-0 in the start of the match. The last two minutes of the nerve wrecking fight changed the game when Chun Lei scored two crucial points to regain the lead.

The Chinese wrestler kept on defending her lead despite a strong show from her Indian counterpart. Lei managed to managed to score 3-2 with just one minute to spare at the clock. In the end, the Haryana based wrestler had to settle for a silver.

This is Vinesh Phogat’s second consecutive silver at the Asian Wrestling Championships. She entered the summit clash of the women’s 50kg freestyle event by defeating Japan’s Yuki Irie.  

The 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallist won the fight against the Japanese wrestler after a hard-fought contest.

The grappler’s silver was India’s third medal in the wrestling event. Two Indian Greco-Roman wrestlers Harpreet Singh and Rajendra Kumar have won the bronze in the men's 82 kg and 55 kg category respectively.