Indian Mansi and Divya Kakrani Also earned a top of the podium finish.
But that day belonged to Sakshi, who has been struggling till the recent Commonwealth Games trials.
Sakshi Malik pins her way to the top of the podium! #WrestleAlmaty https://t.co/eDHiPWDekp
— United World Wrestling (@wrestling) 1654268603000
She had been losing consistently to young Sonam Malik in the 62kg category and even missed out on qualifying for the Tokyo Games but that completely changed on Friday as she fought her bouts with tremendous confidence.
She started off with a technical superiority win against Kazakhstan’s Irina Kuznetsova and then registered a massive 9-3 win over Uzbekistan’s Rushana Abdirasulova.
As Mongolia’s Tserenchimed Sukhi lost her semi-final, Sakshi advanced to the final, where she beat Kuznetsova 7-4 to beat the home wrestler for the second time in the day.
Sakshi stood out with her double leg strikes and agility, barely giving her opponents a breather. Even as her opponent won the challenge to take a 5-3 lead, Sakshi didn’t budge and went on to win in an emphatic fashion.
The last time she won a gold was at the 2017 Commonwealth Championships, while she won two bronze medals at the Asian Championships in 2020 and 2022.
Mansi (57kg) also won the gold medal, winning her final 3-0 against Kazakhstan’s Emma Tysina, who barely made a move. Mansi gets push out points mostly because two wrestlers were involved in standing Wrestling,
Divya won by ‘fall’ in her two bouts – against Mongolia’s Delgarma Enkhsaikhan and Kazakhstan’s Albina Kergeldinova – but the four-wrestler lost the final bout 10-14 to Mongolia’s Bolortunglag Zorigat in the 68kg category.
Zorigat also finished with two wins and one defeat (against Delgarma), but since Divya had more convincing results, she was declared the winner.
India has now won four medals in the 63kg category with Greco-Roman wrestler Neeraj winning bronze on Thursday.