Defensive Sakshi Malik Fails to Bag a Medal Despite a Good Start
Pooja Handa and Sumit Malik also lost their bronze medal match on Monday.
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Rio Olympic medallist Sakshi Malik, competing in her first Asian Games, lost her bronze medal bout tamely in Jakarta on Monday.
Sakshi paid the price for being over-defensive and was left to fight for bronze in the 62 kg category. She lost 2-12 to Korea's Hang Jungwon on technical superiority. Her bout was over before the first period ended.
Earlier in the day, Sakshi was hardly challenged before her semifinal bout as she easily won against Thailand's Salinee Srisombat (10-0) and Ayaulym Kassymova (10-0).
She was up 4-0 in her semi-final round against Kyrgyzstan's Aisuluu Tynybekova but lost six points in a row by the end of the first period.
She led 7-6 with a throw down but became too defensive and looked to hold her rival with 10 seconds to go. The Kyrgyz wrestler took advantage and pushed Sakshi out of the mat to log match-winning two points.
Pooja lost just one point en route the semifinals as she outclassed Thailand's Orasa Sookdongyor (10-0) and Uzbekistan's Nabira Esenbae (12-1) but lost the last-four clash on technical superiority to Korea's Myong Suk Jong.
Sumit, the last remaining Indian in the men's freestyle event, bit the dust in the 125kg as he could not fight his first-round opponent even for two minutes, losing by technical superiority.
He made the repechage round and advanced to the bronze medal match which he lost 0-2 to Uzbekistan's Davit Modzmanashvili.
Thus, the men's freestyle campaign finished with just one gold medal from Bajrang Punia (65kg).
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