Paris: India’s top hope for a medal in women’s wrestling. Antim Panghal suffered defeat by technical superiority (0-10) at the hands of Türkiye’s Zeynep Yetgil in the 53kg pre-quarterfinals, here on Wednesday.
Seeded fourth, Antim is a two-time World Junior Champion and a bronze medal winner at the Asian Games in Hangzhou last year. However, on Wednesday, the 19-year-old could not play her game against the Turkish wrestler.
Zeynep was controlling the bout from the beginning, as she took a 4-0 lead in the first 39 seconds of the bout and followed it up with perfect moves to seal the TSU win over Antim in just 1.41 seconds.
The 19-year-old Antim, who is seeded fourth, will hope Zeynep makes it to the final to have a shot at fighting for the bronze medal through the repechage round.
For the first time at the Olympics, there are seedings with the top eight wrestlers in each weight class getting the opportunity.
Seedings were awarded based on the wrestlers’ performances at the 2023 World Championships, the 2024 Continental Championships, the 2024 Zagreb Open Ranking Series, and the 2024 Hungarian Ranking Series.
Anitm made history as the first Indian woman to win gold at the Junior World Wrestling Championships in 2022, defending her title in 2023. She replicated her feat by earning a bronze medal at the 2023 World Wrestling Championships, a bronze at the 2022 Asian Games, and a silver at the 2023 Asian Wrestling Championships.
