Asian Games: Pincky Balhara secures bronze after losing Kurash semifinal to Mo Sumin

Nagoya: India's Pincky Balhara on Monday won a bronze medal in the Kurash -78kg event after losing the semifinal at the ongoing Asian Games.

Pincky, the 2018 Jakarta Games silver medallist, lost the semifinal match at the Aichi-Nagoya Games to South Korea's Mo Sumin 0-5 to miss out on her place in the gold medal clash. She had earlier defeated South Korea's Garam Lim in the quarterfinals by a 3-0 margin.

Sumin dominated Pincky in the semifinal. The Indian received a dakki (two warnings in Kurash). Meanwhile, Sumin nailed a half point, a chala and then a yonbosh (full point) later as she won the contest 5-0.

Pincky had earlier won the quarterfinal against another South Korean, Lim, with a 3-0 win. She nailed a chala (half point) on the Korean, while Lim received a tanbekh (warning) in the QF.

Pincky had won a silver in the 2018 Asian Games, when Kurash made its debut at the continental showpiece. She was a judoka previously and had also won a gold medal at the 2018 Asian Junior Judo Championships. She missed out on making it to India's Asian Games squad in the judo event. However, Pincky qualified for the kurash event later and won a silver.

This was India's first joy in the Kurash event as the contingent did not win a match on Sunday. Vishal lost his men's +90kg quarter-finals to Thailand's Kunathip Yea-On after going down 5-0.

Another Indian athlete, Sangita Balhara, went down to Charmea Quelino of the Philippines in the women's -57kg Round of 32 by 10-0. Bharti went down to Iran's Tahereh Azarpeivand in the women's -57kg round of 16, while Yash Kumar Chauhan lost to Tajikistan's Shakarmamad Mirmamadov in the men's +90kg round of 16 by 10-0.

Pincky's medal was the first for India on Monday. A little later, Esha Singh won a much hard-fought silver in the women's 25m pistol event with an Asian record-equalling score of 38. She fought her way to secure a silver with an intense three-shoot-off series against North Korea's Kim Hyon Suk but lost a two-series shoot-off to China's Xiao Jiaruixuan for the gold medal push.

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