Indian wrestler Anshu Malik on Friday won a silver medal in the women’s 57 kg freestyle at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games. She lost to defending champion Odunayo Folasade Adekuroye of Nigeria 7-3 in the summit clash and celebrated with a song.
The three-time CWG champion Nigerian wrestler dominated the first period as she won four points, took Anshu down twice and earned a technical point. Anshu launched some desperate attacks in the second period as she scored a point followed by a takedown for two.
The Nigerian took advantage of Anshu’s aggressive tactics and counterattacked, scoring three points – two for takedowns. With only seconds left on the clock, Anshu launched a desperation attack and landed a takedown but was denied appeal points as she was unable to fully execute the attack.
She left the mat with tears in her eyes because she had no birthday present to give herself and that too in her debut campaign.
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The 21-year-old defeated Australia’s Irene Simonidis 10-0 with technical superiority in the quarter-finals. In the semifinals, she defeated Nethami Poruthotage of Sri Lanka by technical superiority 10-0 and that too in just one minute.
Earlier on Friday, wrestling matches at the Victoria Park Arena in Coventry were halted due to security concerns. The Birmingham Commonwealth Games organizing committee has temporarily suspended the wrestling events to conduct some safety and security drills, an official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Anshu Malik, who hails from a lineage of wrestlers, won a silver medal at the 2021 Oslo World Championships.
Daughter of international wrestler Dharamveer Malik, Anshu is a three-time medalist in the Cadet Wrestling Championship with gold in 2017 and bronze medals in 2016 and 2018 in the 60 kg category.
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