India had never won gold before in the women's category at the World U20 Wrestling Championships 2022. Antim Panghal made up for that lack.
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Indian wrestler Antim Panghal created history. She became India's first female wrestler to win gold at the World U20 Wrestling Championships 2022. Antim won the gold by defeating Atlyn Shagayeva of Kazakhstan by 8-0 points in the 53kg category final on Friday in Sofia, Bulgaria. India has never won gold in this competition before.
This Indian female wrestler was in the rhythm from the beginning. She defeated European champion, Olivia Andrich by technical superiority 11-0. Antim then dominated Japan's Ayaka Kimura in the quarterfinals. Ukraine's Nataliia Klivchutska put up a little fight against Antim but couldn't maintain consistency and lost by 11-2 in the semis.
On this day, Sonam Malik and Priyanka won silver in the finals of the 62 kg and 65 kg categories respectively. Otherwise more gold would have come home to India. India won seven medals in the men's freestyle category. Among them are six bronze and one silver. India has finished third in the medal table. In the women's category, India won three silvers and a bronze beside one gold.
Antim had won bronze at the 2021 Cadet World Championships. After that, she won the silver medal at the U-23 Asian Championship held in 2022. Apart from the last, only four Indian wrestlers have won gold medals at the U-20 World Championships. Pappu Yadav won gold in Greco-Roman style in 1992. Deepak Punia won gold in the 86kg category in 2019. Besides, Ramesh Kumar and Palwinder Singh Cheema won gold here in 2001.