India's Anshu Malik grabs silver at Wrestling World Cup
Belgrade, Dec 17: Young Anshu Malik was the lone Indian woman wrestler to win a medal at the individual World Cup, grabbing a silver in the 57kg category, here.
Anshu, who is coming up from the junior ranks, clinched her third medal at the senior level from as many tournaments. She lost the gold medal bout 1-5 to Moldova's Anastasia Nichita on Wednesday night.
She had won a bronze at the Asian Championship early this year in New Delhi and a silver at Mattio Pellicone event in Rome in January.
She is gradually making the 57kg category her own despite presence of World championship medallist Pooja Dhanda and experienced Sarita Mor in the same weight class.
Anshu began with a 4-2 win over Azerbaijan's Alyona Kolesnik and followed it up with 3-1 victory over Germany's Laura Mertens in the quarterfinals.
In the semi-final, she outplayed Russia's Veronika Chumikova, recording a victory by fall.
Another Indian grappler Pinki also did well to reach the 55kg semi-finals, where she lost to Belarusian Iryna Kurachkina.
She later lost the bout for bronze to Russia's Olga Khoroshavtseva by technical superiority.
Sarita (59kg), Sonam Malik (62kg) and Sakshi Malik (65kg) could not go beyond quarterfinals in their respective categories.
Veteran Gursharanpreet got a repechage round in the 72kg but lost that by technical superiority to Evgeniia Zakharchenko.
Nirmala Devi (50kg) and Kiran (76kg) fizzed in the Qualification round, losing 6-9 to Poland's Anna Lukasiak and Canada's Erica Elizabeth Wiebe respectively.
From among the Greco Roman grapplers, only Arjun Halakurki could reach the quarterfinals in the 55kg while all other could not go beyond qualification rounds.
Arjun lost 5-10 to Kyrgyzstan's Balbai Dordokov.
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Vinay Somaiah Suicide: BJP stages road blockade protest in Madikeri
Madikeri: The Kodagu district unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staged a road blockade protest in Madikeri on Thursday, demanding the immediate arrest of those allegedly responsible for the suicide of party worker Vinay Somaiah.
BJP leaders and workers assembled at General Thimmaiah Circle in the heart of the city, raising slogans against the Congress party and the state government. The protestors specifically demanded action against a Congress spokesperson mentioned in a note Vinay reportedly left before his death.
Addressing the gathering, former Assembly Speaker K.G. Bopaiah expressed strong dissatisfaction with the government and the police. He said the FIR against Vinay originally stayed by the court was later revived under a different section by the police. “Vinay had merely posted about the unhygienic condition of the Napoklu public toilet. Instead of addressing the issue, an FIR was filed against him. This is unacceptable. The police seem to be functioning under the directions of Congress MLAs, disregarding even court orders,” he stated.
District BJP President Napanda Ravi Kalappa also criticized the police, saying Vinay had no direct connection to the original post and was wrongly targeted. “An innocent man has lost his life. Two MLAs in Kodagu district are misusing police power to suppress dissent. The FIR was registered under political pressure,” he alleged, further demanding that the two MLAs resign and cooperate with the investigation into Vinay's death.
The protest led to a road blockade that lasted for over an hour, significantly affecting traffic. Despite requests from police officers to clear the area, BJP workers insisted on the arrival of the District Superintendent of Police (SP) to address their concerns.
SP K. Ramarajan later arrived at the protest site and informed the protesters that since the incident occurred in Bengaluru, the investigation was being conducted by the police there.
He assured full cooperation from the Kodagu police in the ongoing probe. Following his assurance, the BJP workers dispersed peacefully.
District BJP General Secretary Mahesh Jaini, SC Morcha District President P.M. Ravi, Women’s Wing President Anita Poovaiah, and other key party functionaries including Suvin Ganapathy, Jagadish, Arun Shetty, municipal council members, and BJP office-bearers from across the district were present on the occasion.
