Sakshi Malik, Divya Kakran, Mansi Ahlawat win gold medals at Bolat Turlykhanov Cup

Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik won her first international gold medal in almost five years at the Bolat Turlykhanov Cup wrestling tournament- a UWW Ranking Series event - at Almaty in Kazakhstan on Friday. India’s Mansi Ahlawat and Divya Kakran also finished at the top of the podium in their respective weight categories.

Sakshi Malik began with a win by technical superiority against Kazakhstan’s Irina Kuznetsova and followed that up with a 9-3 win over Uzbekistan’s Rushana Abdirasulova. As Mongolia’s Tserenchimed Sukhee forfeited her semifinal, Sakshi entered the final, where she pinned Irina Kuznetsova while leading 7-4, beating the home wrestler for a second time in the day.

The last time Sakshi Malik won a gold was



at the 2017 Commonwealth Championship even as she won two bronze medals at the Asian Championships in 2020 and 2022.

Mansi won her final bout 3-0 against Kazakshtan’s Emma Tissina in 57 kilogram category. Divya won two of her bouts by fall - against Mongolia’s Delgermaa Enkhsaikhan and Kazakhstan’s Albina Kairgeldinova - but lost the final bout 10-14 to Mongolia’s Bolortungalag Zorigt in the four-wrestler 68kg category. Zorigt also finished with two wins and a defeat against Delgermaa but since Divya had more convincing results, she was declared the winner.

India now have won four medals with Greco Roman wrestler Neeraj winning a bronze in 63kg category on Thursday.