Sakshi Malik wins bronze medal in wrestling 58kg category, opens India’s account at Rio 2016 Olympics

India’s Sakshi Malik won a bronze medal in the wrestling 58kg category after the Indian beat Aisuluu Tynybekova 8-5 in the bronze medal bout. In a thrilling contest, Sakshi fought back from 0-5 down to seal the bout 8-5 in her favour. With seconds left on the clock, she produced a three-point move to seal the bout and India’s first medal at Rio 2016 Olympics.

It wasn’t an ideal start for the 23-year-old as she conceded a five-point lead early in the contest, and like in three out of the four bouts earlier in the day, she was back from behind to produce the moves when they mattered, and seal the win.

Tynybekova started on a positive note as her leg-grab put her in the lead. She repeated the move again and sat in a comfortable position. Malik opened the scoring in the second period of the bout when she pushed her opponent down and out of the mat. She hit back with a similar move to reduce the deficit to just one point.