Sakshi Malik storms into finals at Asian Wrestling Championship

Rio Olympics bronze medallist woman wrestler Sakshi Malik (60kg) assured herself of a silver medal after reaching the finals at the Asian Wrestling Championship on Friday.

The 24-year-old from Haryana defeated Ayaulym Kassymova of Kazakhstan to enter the finals. She had advanced to the semi-final after beating Uzbek grappler Nabira Esenbaeva 6-2 in the quarterfinal bout.

Sakshi will face Olympic gold medallist Japan's Risako Kawai in the finals.

Sakshi had become the first Indian female wrestler to win a medal at the Olympics when she clinched the bronze in the 58 kg category at Rio Games.

She had previously won the silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and the bronze medal at the 2015 Asian Wrestling Championships in Doha.

Making her comeback after an injury, wrestler Vinesh Phogat has also reached finals in  55 kg category. Including Divya Kakran in 69 kg category, three grapplers have a chance to bring glory for India.

(With PTI Inputs)