Rohtak-born Sakshi Malik secured a stunning victory in her first bout at the Rio Olympics 2016. Taking on the World No. 3 Johanna Mattsson of Sweden, the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth silver medallist overturned a 4-point deficit at the dying seconds to win the Women’s freestyle 58kg Qualification clash, 5-4 and progressed to the Round of 16.
Sakshi will now face Mariana Cherdivara Esanu of Moldova who had earlier eased past Lissette Antes of Ecuador with a convincing 3-0 scoreline. Immediately as Mariana's bout got over, Sakshi came out to the centre of Carioca Arena 2 in Rio de Janeiro to kickstart India's female wrestlers' Rio 2016 campaign.
The beginning moments weren't favourable for Malik as she picked up a warning for making an illegal move which was followed by a quick couple of points for Mattsson within the very first minute. As grapplers vied for an opening against each other, Sakshi conceded another double before the end of the first half which took the scoreline to 4-0 in favour of the Swedish wrestler at half-time.
What looked to be a heavily intimidating situation at the interval saw an improvement within 8 seconds of the 2nd half when Malik grabbed Mattsson and pushed her outside the ring that opened her account with two points. With a minute left on the clock, she managed to send the Swedish out of the ring once again, but this time, Johanna stayed on her feet to keep the conceded point at 1.
Trailing 4-3 with under 10 seconds left on the clock, Sakshi turned it on against the World No. 3 to accomplish a fabulous takedown that fetched her a decisive double, pushing her above Johanna to 5-4 as the final whistle was blown to signal the end of the match.
Sakshi pulled off a brilliant comeback to win her opening fixture 5-4 and provide a much-needed winning start to the female wrestling contingent at the Rio Olympics 2016.
