CWG 2022: Gold for Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik, Anshu Malik settles for silver

Bajrang Punia gave India its first gold medal in the sport of wrestling as he beat Canada's Lachlan McNeil in the men's 65kg freestyle wrestling final. Bajrang is an Olympic bronze medallist (Tokyo 2021) and also has another gold and a silver medal in the Commonwealth Games to his name. He has one silver and two bronze medals to his name in World Championships.

Similarly, wrestler Sakshi Malik also won Gold medal (62kg) after pinning down reigning U23 World Champion Ana Godinez of Canada in Final. 

On the other hand, India's Anshu Malik had to be satisfied with a silver medal in the women's freestyle 57kg wrestling after losing to Odunayo Folasade Adekuoroye of Nigeria in the final at the Victoria Park Arena in Coventry on Friday. Anshu, who had dominated her way to the final with easy wins, found the Nigerian wrestler's defense too strong to breach as she lost 3-7 on points.

The Nigerian wrestler, a three-time CWG winner, dominated the first period as she won four points, pulling Anshu down twice and getting technical points. Anshu launched some desperate attacks in the second period as she bagged one point followed by a two-point takedown.

The Nigerian capitalised on Anshu's aggressive tactics and launched a counterattack and earned three points -- two for a takedown. With just seconds remaining on the clock, Anshu launched a desperate attack and effected a takedown but she was denied the points on appeal as she could not execute the attack fully.

The Indian wrestler was clearly disappointed with her performance and left the mat with tears in her eyes.

Sri Lanka's Nethmi Porthotage and Hannah Taylor of Canada won the bronze medals in the women's 57kg.