Asian Wrestling C'ship: Sakshi, Vinesh, Divya settle for silver

Indian wrestlers Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat and Divya Kakran won silver medals after losing the gold medal matches in their respective categories of the Asian Wrestling Championships here on Friday.

Sakshi, the Rio Olympics silver medallist, went down against Japan's Risako Kawai in women's 60kg category.

The 24-year-old grappler, who returned to the mat after almost a year, went down 0-10 to the Rio Olympic gold medallist in a one-sided contest in just 2 minutes and 44 seconds.

Sakshi, who created history by becoming the first Indian wrestler to win an Olympic medal -- with a bronze -- last year, could not counter the challenge from the strong Japanese grappler.

"I am happy with the silver medal. However, I feel that staying away from the competition for more than a year did had an effect on my performance. I was away from game for some time, now I getting in the rhythm and will hopefully perform even better in world championships," Sakshi told ANI after the match.

Another Indian, Vinesh Phogat also settled for a silver in 55kg category. She lost her gold medal match against Sae Nanjo of Japan, going down 4-8 in the finals.

"I am happy that I have recovered well from the injury and have finished on the podium. However, I will make sure that we work more hard and win gold in the coming competitions," Vinesh told ANI.

Divya Kakran, who was the third Indian to have made the final in women's 69kg category, also had to remain content with a silver after losing 0-8 to Japan's Sara Dosho.

Earlier in the evening, Ritu Phogat also bagged a bronze medal in the 48kg category in women's wrestling.

Phogat's opponent Yanan Sun of China gave her a walkover in the medal contest after coming through the repechage.