Asian Wrestling Championships 2019: Divya Kakran, Manju Kumari clinch bronze medals; Seema falters in playoff match

Xi’an: India’s Divya Kakran and Manju Kumari bagged bronze medals for the country in the women’s competition of the Asian Wrestling Championships here Thursday. Asian Games bronze-medallist Kakran defeated Battsetseg Soronzonbold of Mongolia via fall in the playoffs of the 68kg category to finish on the podium. [caption id=“attachment_5123161” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Divya Kakran. AFP[/caption] It was double delight for India as Manju also secured a bronze medal earlier in the day by beating Vietnam’s Thi Huong Dao 11-2. Seema, who also made it to the playoffs, however, failed to register a hat-trick of bonze medals for India after losing to Valentina Ivanovna Islamova Brik of Kazakhstan 5-11 in the 50kg category. Earlier in the day, while Kakran and Manju reached the bronze medal round after losing their respective semi-final bouts, Seema made it to the third-fourth place tie after winning her repechage bout. Silver-medallist in the 69kg category at the 2017 edition of the Asian Championships in New Delhi, Kakran lost out on a place in the final of 68kg after going down to Feng Zhou of China 4-14 in the semi-finals. Kakran, who is returning to competitive wrestling after recovering from an ankle injury, came up with an impressive show to beat Hong Thuy Nguyen of Vietnam 10-0 in her quarter-final bout. In the 59kg category, Manju had lost to Battsetseg Altantsetseg of Mongolia 6-15 in the last four stage to settle for a place in the bronze-medal round. Manju had earlier beaten Kazakhstan’s Madina Bakbergenova 5-3 in the quarter-finals. In the 50kg category, Seema defeated Meng Hsuan Hsieh of Chinese Taipei 10-2 in her repechage bout. She had earlier lost to Yuki Irie of Japan in the qualification round but made the repechage after her Japanese rival reached the final. However, India’s campaign got over early in the 55kg and 76kg weight divisions when Lalita and Pooja lost their respective quarter-final bouts to bow out of the event.