Antim Panghal started her season with a silver medal at the Asian Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan. In the final, she lost to Japan’s Akari Fujinami, who is yet to lose a senior bout in her career.
Antim is also the reigning U20 world champion, having successfully defended her title in Amman, Jordan this August. The wrestler from Haryana is the only two-time junior world champion from India.
Making her senior world championships debut in Belgrade, Serbia in September, Antim won the bronze medal after beating Sweden’s two-time European champion Jonna Malmgren in the medal bout. In the process, Antim also secured a Paris 2024 Olympic quota for India in the women’s 53kg category.
A month later, at the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou, Antim won another bronze medal after beating Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Bat-Ochir Bolortuya of Mongolia in the medal match. It also marked the Indian grappler’s debut at the continental multi-sport event.
Greece’s Georgios Kougioumtsidis, meanwhile, won the Rising Star of the Year award in the men’s freestyle and Azerbaijan’s Hasrat Jafarov took the honours in the Greco-Roman category.