Anshu Malik was given a chance to contest for the Bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics in a repechage match
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In a close match between Anshu Malik of India and Valeria Koblova of ROC, the Indian lost. It was almost close to a tie at Tokyo Olympics, when both the wrestlers were going neck to neck in points 1-1. Anshu eventually lost that match 5-1, in the last few seconds. This only goes to show, wrestling is as uncertain as it gets. (Tokyo 2020 coverage)
Anshu started by trying to dominate her opponent and went aggressive in her approach. As a result, her opponent was given a passivity. As passivity goes, the wrestler has to make the moves in those 30 seconds. Failing to do so a game point is awarded to the opponent. Valeria Koblova made the most of the opportunity and was able to score a point off of those 30 seconds.
The pressure was building on Anshu as she realised it was important for her to score. It was probably that 30 seconds talk with the coach or just that Anshu got time to catch her breath. Either way, she came back in full swing and was as aggressive as her natural game is. She came back attacking and scored a point to keep herself in the game.
Koblova showed her experience and outpowered Anshu in the final two minutes. She pinned Anshu to the mat, and initially got two points. It was only a matter of seconds that the second pin came in, and she got two more. At this point, there were just 15 seconds on the clock, and the Russian was just holding her grip firm and was able to pin Anshu till the clock hit 00.00.
Right then, Anshu Malik has crashed out of the event. She lost her opening bout yesterday but made a comeback into the event via the repechage rule. The Indian was just one win away from qualifying for the bronze medal match. At this point of the Games, experience triumphed will and Anshu has a lot to learn from this outing of her’s.
