Asian Wrestling: Sarita, Sushma clinch bronze

Ulaanbaatar, April 21 (Agency) Two-time Asian Champion Sarita Mor and Sushma Shokeen bagged bronze at the Asian Wrestling Championships here on Thursday. In the 59kg category, Sarita, who was aiming her third consecutive Asian title, won two of the four matches and settled for the third place finish and missed to achieve the feat of becoming the first Indian woman to win three titles in a row. Sara Natami of Japan bagged gold and Momgolia’s Shoovdor Baatarjav won silver. In the opening round, Sarita lost 1-2 to local wrestler Baatarjav and suffered a second loss vis technical superiority 0-10 at the hands of Natami.

She then bounced back with dominating 11-0 win over Dilfuza Aimbetova of Uzbekistan, followed by 5-2 victory against Diana Kayumova. In the 55kg, Sushma too had a poor start as she faced 0-11 loss at the hands of Japan’s Umi Imai. Then, she defeated Altyn Shagayeva of Kazakhstan 5-0 and outshined Uzbekistan’s Sarbinaz Jienbaeva 12-0 before losing the silver medal bout 5-15 to Otgonjargal Ganbaatar of Mongolia.