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Indian wrestlers Nisha Dahiya and Priya clinched silver and bronze medals in their respective weight categories at the ongoing Asian Wrestling Championships being held in Astana, Kazakhstan on Tuesday.
Nisha, a bronze medalist at the U23 world championships in the 65 kg category last year, competed in the 68 kg category in the Kazakh meet. She started off her day with a 10-10 win via criteria over the previous edition's bronze medalist Delgermaa Enkhsaikhan of Mongolia in the quarterfinals and then later made a comeback from behind to overcome Asian Games champion and Olympian, Feng Zhou of China to advance to the gold medal match, as per Olympics.com. But Ami Ishi, a highly-rated young Japanese talent and a 2022 world championships silver medalist proved to be too strong for the Indian to overcome. Ishi won the match and walked away with the gold while Nisha had to settle for silver. Priya, competing in the 76 kg category in women's competition, defeated Chinese Taipei's Hui Tsz Chang by 2-1 to advance past the qualification stage. But she was defeated by Kyrgyzstan's Aiperi Kyzy in the quarterfinal. The 18-year-old Indian entered the repechage round following Kyzy's progress to the final. In the bronze medal bout, the U17 world champion Priya defeated Japan's Mizuki Nagashima 2-1 to clinch the bronze. With these two medals, India's medal tally at the championships has increased to six. On previous days, Greco-Roman wrestler Rupin (55kg) bagged silver while Neeraj (63kg), Vikas (72kg) and Sunil Kumar (87kg) clinched bronze medals. Neelam (50 kg), Sito (55 kg) and Sarita Mor (59 kg) were three other women competing on Tuesday, but they failed to get their hands on a medal. Neelam won her quarterfinal bout against Kazakhstan's Ellada Makhyaddinova via fall but was pinned by the eventual gold medalist Remina Yoshimoto of Japan in the semi-final. In the bronze medal match, China's Ziqi Feng defeated Neelam via technical superiority. Sito bowed out of the competition after a first-round loss to former U23 Asian champion Marina Sedneva of Kazakhstan. Sarita, a two-time Asian champion and bronze medalist last year, lost two of her three rounds and failed to qualify for medal bouts. Though Sarita started well with a 4-1 win over 2021 Asian championship silver medalist Bolortuya Khurelkhuu of Mongolia, losses to finalists Yui Sakano of Japan and Zhuomalaga of China ended her campaign in Astana. The remaining five Indian women wrestlers - U20 world champion Antim Paghal (53kg), Anshu Malik (57kg), Sonam Malik (62kg), Manisha (65kg) and Reetika Hooda (72kg) - will be competing on Wednesday. At the last year's meet in Mongolia, Indian women's wrestlers won two silvers and three bronze medals. The championships started on April 9 in Astana and will end on April 14. (ANI)
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