Indian wrestler Nisha Dahiya won her career's first major medal at the senior level as she bagged silver in the women's 68kg category at the Asian Wrestling Championships in Kazakhstan on Tuesday.
Priya Malik, the U17 World Champion and U20 Worlds silver medallist, also clinched her first big medal on the senior circuit by winning bronze in the 76kg category.
The final was a subdued affair as Nisha found no way past Ishii's defence. The Japanese wrestler, a silver medallist at the 2022 World Championships, controlled the pace of the bout and countered each of Nisha's takedown attempts. Nisha repeatedly attempted the left-hand under-hook to lift Ishii and initiate a takedown but found no success. Ishii led 4-0 at the end of the first period and rode the momentum to make light work of Nisha and win 10-0.
Earlier, Nisha had conjured two sublime victories to make it to the final. She began her campaign against Mongolia's Delgermaa Enkhsaikhan and cruised to an 8-2 lead. However, Enkhsaikhan struck back with a takedown to reduce the deficit and then took the lead with a fine combination of moves. Nisha dug deep to inflict a takedown with exactly 14 seconds left on the clock to level the scores at 10-10 and seal the win on 'criteria' owing to her four takedowns.
The Indian then produced an incredible come-from-behind win to beat China's Feng Zhou in the semi-final. Nisha was trailing 3-6 when she executed a lift and scored two exposures to win the bout 7-6.
Priya, a cadet world champion in the 73kg, beat Hui Tsz Chang of Chinese Taipei in the qualification round before losing to Kyrgyz Republic's Aiperi Medet Kyzy, the defending champion, in all of 43 seconds.
The Indian wrestler had a shot at bronze via repechage and took on Japan's Mizuki Nagashima. Priya got her first point after Nagashima was out on the activity clock. Priya defended well to take a 2-0 lead but survived a scare at the death as Nagashima halved the deficit by inflicting a step out.
Neelam (50kg) made it to the bronze medal playoff but lost to China's Ziqi Feng. Meanwhile, Sito (55kg), making her senior-level debut, and Sarita Mor (59kg) did not make it to the medal rounds. Sito lost in the opening round to Kazakhstan's Marina Secneva, while Sarita won her first bout against Mongolia's Bolortuya Khurelkhuu 4-1 before losing to Japan's Yui Sakano and China's Zhuomalaga