Mukaida and Pang, it turned out, were unable to attend for various reasons. Phogat had done it. In the words of the Indian wrestler, the gold was on the offering. And she did so without conceding a single point, claiming the title of Asian champion in the 53kg weight class. This was the first time Phogat had won the gold medal in eight tries (she has three silver and four bronze medals).
She said," I learnt a lot of things despite the tough opponents not here,” Phogat was quoted as saying by the United World Wrestling (UWW) website.
She spoke about the need to improve her recovery between the bouts, which “is not the best right now”. But there is another issue Phogat said she is ‘struggling’ with — low blood pressure. This, Phogat said, affected her in defeat to Mukaida during the Asian Championship last year. “Last year in Delhi during the Mukaida bout, the last one minute was little blurry. So I was thinking it will improve here, but I am still struggling with it,” Phogat told the UWW.
Phogat has been on a roll since returning to competition after a pandemic-induced break. She won titles in Kiev and Rome before Almaty, and while those victories would boost her morale in the run-up to Tokyo, Phogat would rather put herself to the test against her two main rivals than go to the Olympics blindfolded.