Japan: India secured two more wrestling medals at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games on Saturday after Antim Panghal and Aman Sehrawat advanced to the women’s 53kg and men’s freestyle 57kg finals, respectively, while Sagar Jaglan and Deepak Punia earned berths in the bronze-medal bouts in their categories.
Antim produced a dominant run through the knockout rounds to become only the third Indian woman wrestler to reach an Asian Games final.
The Hangzhou 2022 bronze medallist began her campaign with a 9-0 win over Kazakhstan’s Shugyla Omirbek before defeating Uzbekistan’s Sakibjamal Esbosynova 8-0 in the quarterfinals.
She then overcame China’s Jin Zhang 6-1 in the semifinals. After trailing 0-1, Antim scored six unanswered points to book her place in the title clash.
Antim will face Japan’s Moe Kiyooka in the final at 4:02 p.m. IST. Her qualification puts her alongside Geetika Jakhar and Vinesh Phogat as the only Indian women wrestlers to have reached an Asian Games final.
Aman also produced a comeback victory to secure his place in the men’s freestyle 57kg final.
The Indian began his campaign with a 20-9 technical superiority win over Japan’s Yamato Ogawa before defeating Kazakhstan’s Nurdanat Aitanov 12-1 in the quarterfinals.
In the semifinal against Tajikistan’s Aiaal Belolyubskii, Aman trailed 2-6 after the opening period but turned the contest around by scoring 12 points in the second period while conceding only two to win 14-8.
He will face North Korea’s Chong Song Han for the gold medal at 2:44 p.m. IST.
For Sagar Jaglan and Deepak Punia, the day ended with bronze-medal opportunities after both suffered defeats in the later stages of their respective draws.
Sagar, who had defeated Mongolia’s Tulga Tumur-Ochir 8-1 in the pre-quarterfinals, was beaten 0-10 by Iran’s Yones Emamichoghaei in the quarterfinals.
He bounced back in the bronze-medal bracket, defeating Uzbekistan’s Razambek Jamalov 7-3 to book a place in the bronze-medal bout in the men’s freestyle 74kg category.
Deepak began his men’s freestyle 97kg campaign with a 12-2 victory over China’s Zhou Junpeng before advancing to the semifinals via a walkover after Hong Kong China’s Li Wui Fung Vincent failed to appear for their quarterfinal.
His semifinal against Uzbekistan’s Sherzod Poyonov went down to the wire, with Deepak eventually losing 8-9. He will now compete for bronze.
India therefore has two wrestlers in the gold-medal bouts and two more in contention for bronze, giving the country four medal opportunities in the wrestling competition.
[DD News]