Individual Wrestling World Cup: Anshu Malik settles for silver

After her stellar show yesterday where she registered three back to back wins to enter the final of the 57kg category, India's Anshu Malik lost to the Moldova’s Anastasia Nichita 5-1 in the final today at the Individual Wrestling World Cup happening at Belgrade.

The first half of the match was evenly poised and ended with the Moldovan having a slender 1 point lead, thanks to a passitivity point gifted by the Indian. Once the second half started, the 19 year old Indian did not seem to have any answers to an agressive Nichita and had to settle for a silver.

Anshu's frustration was very well visible when she tried to push the Moldovan off the mat twice in the final minute to leverage some points. Those efforts were of no avail as Anastasia Nichita cruised to an easy win.

Anshu's silver medal effort means that India have finally opened their medal account in what has till now been a rather disappointing World Cup for them.

Anshu wins silver!

Many congratulations to #AnshuMalik for winning a silver medal in the women’s 57 kg at the Wrestling World Cup in Serbia after a battling display against Anastasia Nichita in the final. This is India’s 1st medal at the event. #WrestleBelgrade @KirenRijiju pic.twitter.com/3E70UlGbyz

— SAIMedia (@Media_SAI) December 16, 2020

Men fail to impress

The Individual World Cup saw the start of men’s freestyle wrestling (India’s most preferred) today. Despite this none of the Indian men apart from Naveen in the 70kg category managed to put up anything worthwhile on the day.

Naveen registered a win 8-4 win over Germany’s Shamil Ustaev in the pre-quarterfinal round of the men’s 70kg category, before going down 12-2 on technical superiority in a lopsided quarterfinal bout against Islambek Orozbekov of Kyrgyzstan.

Individual World Cup - Day 5 Results

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— wrestlingtv 🇮🇳 (@wrestlingtvIND) December 16, 2020

The 22 year old Ravi Kumar Dahiya looked all set for a win in his 57kg pre-quarterfinal bout against Gamzatgadsi Halidov of Hungary before handing the Hungarian a victory by fall. The Indian was leading the 6-4 when he conceded the bout.

On the other hand, despite putting a brave fight, Narsingh Yadav who was returning from a doping ban could not go past the qualification round of the 74kg category. The Indian who was recently down with the coronavirus lost 10-9 to Germany’s Osman Cakici.

While, fighting in the 125kg category Sumit crashed out after losing 2-4 against Egor Olar of Moldova.