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India’s Sakshi Malik celebrates after winning against Kirghyzstan’s Aisuluu Tynybekova in their women’s 58 kg freestyle bronze medal match on 17 August, during the wrestling event of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Carioca Arena 2 in Rio de Janeiro - AFP
India’s bronze medallist Sakshi Malik stands on the podium at the end of the women’s 58 kg freestyle wrestling event at the Carioca Arena 2 in Rio de Janeiro on 17 August, during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games
(Agencies): Sakshi Malik snared India’s first medal of the Rio Olympics on Wednesday when she claimed bronze in the women’s freestyle wrestling 58 kg category.
Malik defeated Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyzstan 3-1 in one of two bronze medal matches.
“It’s my dream of 12 years come true, I’m so happy,” Malik said. “It’s a very pressurised match because it’s a medal match - very, very pressurised.
“I was very confident I would win,” said Malik, who hails from northern Haryana Province.
Although the 23-year-old was trailing 0-5 against her Kyrgyzstani opponent after the first period, she bounced back in style to hand India its fourth bronze medal in wrestling in the Olympic history.
An ecstatic Malik said she had waited for this moment for the last 12 years.
“It is a big achievement. I have been chasing this moment for the last 12 years. Wrestling was on my mind round-the-clock. The country had lot of expectations from me and today I have delivered it. I thank all the people,” said Malik in Rio.
Indian President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi also congratulated Malik on her triumph.
After going down 2-9 against Russia’s Valeriia Koblova in the quarter-finals, Sakshi received another chance at a medal via repechage and made full use of the second life by outplaying Mongolian wrestler Orkhon Purevdorj 12-3 to advance to the bronze-medal match.
With the win, she also became the fourth Indian wrestler to win a medal at the Olympics after Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav, two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt.
