India wrestler Antim Panghal pulled off a major upset at the 2023 Wrestling World Championships stunning the reigning World Champion in the opening round of the 53kg category on Wednesday.
Apart from Antim's success, India has not had a very successful outing at the ongoing event with all male wrestlers getting eliminated before the medal rounds and among the women - Manisha (62kg), Priyanka (68kg) and Jyoti Brewal (72kg) have also lost their bouts and are awaiting other results for a chance at the repechage round.
In the opening round on Wednesday, Panghal defeated Olivia Dominique Parrish with a scoreline of 3-2 to enter the Round of 16. She played defensive, preventing Parrish from making any attacking move that could take down the Indian wrestler. Parrish ran out of time, giving Panghal an opportunity to get the better of her and advance to the next round.
After the win, Antim, the reigning junior World Champion, defeated Poland’s Roksana Marta Zasina by technical superiority to move into the quarterfinals before taking down Natalia Malysheva to enter the semis.
After the ongoing tournament, Panghal will be next in action at the Asian Games, to be held in 23 September to 8 October at Hangzhou, China. Vinesh Phogat had to bow out of the tournament due to an injury, which resulted in Panghal getting a chance to participate in the intercontinental tournament.
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