The 20-year-old two-time world junior champion clinches back-to-back gold medals at International Ranking Series events
Medallists of the Budapaest international ranking series. Pic: Special arrangement.
Our Correspondent
Promising female wrestler Antim Panghal has been on a roll. With back-to-back gold medals at the international ranking series — the Ulaanbaatar Open and now Budapest — the 20-year-old has emerged as a strong medal contender in the 53kg weight category ahead of the upcoming World Championships in Zagreb.
The 53kg event had been dominated by World Championship medallist and Olympian Vinesh Phogat since 2016. That changed when Vinesh switched to the 50kg category for the Paris Olympics.
As for Antim’s performance this season, the two-time world junior champion has bounced back strongly from her not-so-encouraging result at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. She has been consistent in international events this year. Antim started the year with a bronze at the Senior Asian Championships, then went on to win gold at the Ulaanbaatar Open — an international ranking series held in May. At the just-concluded Polyák Imre & Varga János Memorial in Budapest, she clinched another gold in the women’s 53kg by defeating Natalia Malysheva, who represented UWW (United World Wrestling), with a score of 7-4.
Antim dominated two of the three bouts winning via technical superiority. She opened with a 10-0 win over Zeynep Yetgil of Turkey, whom she had had lost to at the Paris Olympics, Antim showed marked improvement in Budapest not alloweing any opportunity to her opponent to score. In the semifinal, she defeated Felicity Taylor of the USA also with technical superiority. She was 3-0 up against Natalia in the final, and though her opponent fought back in the second period, Antim showed good control to win the bout.
Going by her current form, she looks on track for the Zagreb World Championships, starting September 13 in Croatia. Antim had won bronze in the 53kg category at the 2023 edition of the Worlds held in Belgrade.
The Indian women’s team also delivered a brilliant performance at the Polyák Imre & Varga János Memorial. Besides Antim, Harshita won gold in the 72kg category at the Budapest Ranking Series. The Indian women’s team secured six medals across the weight classes it competed in. The other medalists were Neha (silver, 57kg), Priya (silver, 76kg), Neelam (bronze, 50kg), and Manisha (bronze, 62kg).
