National Wrestling trials: Sonam Malik beats Sakshi Malik, four other make cuts

Sonam Malik once again upset Sakshi Malik in the Women’s National Wrestling 62kg category trials in Lucknow on Tuesday. The win enabled Sonam to make her way to the Asian Olympic Qualifiers and Asian Championship to be held in Kazakhstan from April 9 to 18.

Besides Sonam Malik, Seema (50kg), Anshu Malik (57kg), Nisha Dahiya (68kg) and Pooja Sihag (76kg) also booked their slots for the next month’s events. For the remaining four weight categories, the selection trials will be held on March 27.

All eyes were on the Sakshi Malik-Sonam Malik bout. 18-year-old Sonam once again put up a great fight against her much-fancied opponent, beating her 8-7 in a thriller.

It was also Sonam Malik’s fourth win against the Rio Olympic bronze medallist in as many fights.

The last instance of Sonam Malik defeating Sakshi Malik was at the Asian Championships selection trials last year.

Earlier, Sonam pulled out of the Matteo Pellicone Memorial meet in Rome after suffering a head injury that required four stitches.

Nisha Dahiya got better of Divya Kakran in 68kg category

In other bouts, Nisha stunned Asian champion Divya Kakran, while Anshu also won in her category. Meanwhile, Commonwealth Games gold medallist Geeta Phogat gave the trials a miss. During the Men’s trials, which concluded earlier this month, nine wrestlers were selected for the Asian meets.

Sandeep Singh Mann (74kg), Satyawart Kadian (97kg), and Sumit (125kg) booked their places in the Freestyle event while Gurpreet Singh (77kg), Sunil Kumar (87kg), Gyanendra (60kg), Ashu (67kg), Ravi (97kg), and Naveen (130kg) will fight in Greco-Roman style.

Only four Indian wrestlers have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics till now. They are Vinesh Phogat (53kg), Bajrang Punia (65kg), Ravi Kumar Dahiya (57kg) asnd Deepak Punia (86kg).