Woman wrestler Sakshi Malik was one step away from bagging India's first medal at the Rio Olympic Games as she stormed into the bronze medal play-off with a dominating 12-3 victory in her 58kg repechage bout, here today.
Sakshi gave no chance to Purevdorjiin Orkhon of Mongolia as she bagged as many as 10 points in the second period after the scores were tied 2-2 at the break.
Sakshi put up a dominating performance, pinning down her opponent from time to time, besides flipping her over to gain valuable points.
The Mongolian girl, in contrast, could earn just one point in the second period to go down tamely in the end.
Sakshi will now take on Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyzstan in the bronze medal play-off.
There are two bronze medals on offer in wrestling event. The 23-year-old got a shot to fight for the bronze medal despite losing in the quarterfinals as the girl who had beaten her in the last eight round - Valeriia Koblova-reached the final of 58kg.
As Sakshi had reached the quarterfinals in this category, she had to fight only one repechage round as compared to two opponents for the other Russian girl, whom she had beaten in the earlier two rounds - pre-quarters and qualification.
Koblova had beaten Luisa Niemesch of Germany in the qualification round before defeating Mongolia's Orkhon in the pre-quarterfinals.
Sakshi had to get the better of the Mongolian girl in the repechage round 2 and she did just that to advance to the bronze medal play off.
Earlier, Sakshi went down in the quarterfinals after losing 2-9 to Koblova. Having conceded one point in the first period of her quarterfinal fight because of passivity, Sakshi did well to earn two points in the second period after taking-down the Russian girl.
But Koblova, with enormous strength, hit back almost immediately to pocket four points and then gained another two to open up a 7-2 lead.
The Russian then closed the door on Sakshi by bagging another two points to win the bout and make the semifinals. In the first two rounds, Sakshi came back from behind to register impressive wins.
Making a strong comeback from a 0-4 down, Sakshi defeated Sweden's Malin Johanna Mattsson 5-4 in the qualification round She was down 0-4 after the first period but quickly made amends in the second period. Sakshi managed to pull two points back before pushing her rival out of the mat to grab another point.
With just 10 seconds remaining, Sakshi desperately needed one more point to post a win and she held her nerves as she took down the Swedish girl in those dying moments to post a narrow victory.
In the pre-quarters, she once again eked out a narrow 5-5 win over Mariana Cherdivara Esanu of Republic of Moldova
In the opening period of the pre-quarterfinal bout, Sakshi got 30 seconds to earn points but she failed and that gave Cherdivara a point. The girl from Moldova then put Sakshi down on the mat to gain another two points and lead 3-0 at the break.
In the second period, the Indian failed to take advantage of the 30 seconds she got and handed Cherdivara another point. Sakshi came back strongly to post a double take down, which earned her four crucial points at one go and helped her surge ahead 5-3.
Although Cherdivara, with her own take-down, gained two points to make the scores level at 5-5 with just 19 seconds left on the clock, the Indian was declared winner on bigger points gain.
