Antim Panghal bounces back to win Wrestling Worlds bronze medal, secures Olympic quota for India

Antim Panghal ended her Wrestling World Championships campaign with a bronze medal which also earned India a 53kg quota for the Paris Olympics. The 19-year-old athlete defeated Sweden’s Emma Jonna Denise Malmgren to become only the sixth Indian woman wrestler to win a bronze medal at the Wrestling Worlds. Antim won the high-scoring bout on technical superiority as she became the first Indian wrestler to book a 2024 Paris Olympics quota. The Hisar-born wrestler showed tremendous resilience to bounce back from her semi-final defeat which had left her heartbroken. The two-time world U20 champion had lost to world No. 23 Vanesa Kaladzinskaya on technical points 5-4 in the semi-finals.

She had earlier stunned reigning champion and USA’s Olivia Dominique Parrish 3-2 in the opening round. In the bronze medal match, Antima started with a 5-0 lead with the help of a push-out point, but Malmgren bounced back with a take-down and had Antim in her grip but the Indian wrestler managed to wriggle out of it. After this Malmgren launched a double-leg attack and took a 6-5 lead, but Antim earned a point on a counter-attack before the end of the first period to make it 6-6. Antim dominated the second period and earned multiple points to make it 16-6 before she eventually won the bout on technical superiority.

This was India’s first medal at the ongoing event as the women’s campaign came to a close. Geeta Phogat (2012), Babita Phogat (2012), Pooja Dhanda (2018), Vinesh Phogat (2019, 2022), and Anshu Malik (silver) are the other Indian women wrestlers to have won medals at the Wrestling World Championships.