Astana: Making a memorable debut at the Asian Championship, Indian wrestler Nisha Dahiya got herself in contention for a gold medal after edging past her opponents in close bouts, here Tuesday.
Nisha downed China’s Feng Zhou in the semifinal, which she won 7-6 after trailing 3-6 in the 68kg bout. This was after the 25-year-old emerged winner on ‘criteria’ in the quarterfinal against Mongolia’s Delgermaa Enkhsaikhan.
The scores were level 10-10 at the end of the bout but the Indian was declared the winner on ‘criteria’. She will now clash with World championship silver medallist Ami Ishii of Japan in the gold medal bout later in the day.
Neelam, the U23 Asian Championship silver medallist, and the 18-year-old Priya, who is competing at the senior level for the first time, will fight for bronze medals in the 50kg and 76kg weight classes respectively.
Neelam notched up a victory by fall win against local favourite Ellada Makhyaddinova in the quarterfinal. However, in her semifinal bout Japan’s Remina
Yoshimoto defeated her in the same manner.