Asian Wrestling Championship: Vinesh Phogat wins Gold

The Indian Wrestler Vinesh Phogat has won her maiden Gold at the Asian Wrestling Championship. She won the medal beating Taipei’s Meng Hsuan Hsieh.

Key Highlights

Vinesh had earlier won four bronze and three silver medals. This is her third gold medal, but first at the Asian Wrestling Championship.

Vinesh Phogat

Vinesh Phogat is an Indian wrestler. She was the first Indian woman to win gold at Asian Games and Common Wealth. Also, she was the first Indian athlete to be nominated for Laureus World Sports Awards.

She won Arjuna Award in 2016, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 2020. Also, she was a Padma Shri nominee in 2018 by the Sports Authority of India.

Other Indian players at Asian Wrestling Championship

Anshu Malik and Sonam Malik have been included in the Target Olympic Podium Scheme. Their names were included in the scheme after they attained their Tokyo Olympic Quotas at the Asian Wrestling Olympic qualifier.

Target Olympic Podium Scheme

Six athletes were recently added to the Target Olympic podium Scheme. This includes four sailors and two athletes. This decision was taken during the fifty sixth meeting of Mission Olympic Cell. The cell also decided that all the Olympic qualified athletes will be supported through Target Olympic Podium Scheme.

The scheme was launched under the ambit of National Sports Development Fund. The main aim of the scheme is to identify and prepare potential medal prospects for the Olympic games. Currently nine sports disciplines have been identified as “high priority category” under the scheme. They are badminton, athletics, hockey, shooting, weight lifting, tennis, wrestling, boxing, archery.

The National Sports Development Fund was established under the Charitable Endowment Act, 1890. It was established in 1998.

Month: Current Affairs - April, 2021