Five things you need to know about Sarita Mor

The female wrestler hails from Sonipat which is famous for producing incredible wrestlers.

Sarita Mor is becoming a well-known figure in India after her exploits in the recently-concluded World Wrestling Championships. The grappler won a bronze medal in the 59kg category, joining five other female wrestlers who won bronze at the World Championships. The 26-year-old has been in good form lately and the fans back home are excited about her performances on the international stage.

India has a long line of young and spirited female wrestlers who are making the country proud across the globe. Sarita Mor and Anshu Malik were the medal winners at the 2021 World Championships held in Oslo, Norway. The latter of the two became the first female wrestler from India to win a silver medal. 

While Anshu Malik has garnered a lot of praise, Sarita Mor’s performance deserves equal recognition. She has become one of the most feared wrestlers in Asia due to her dominance in different competitions. However, there is a lot more to know about the wrestler from Haryana.

Here are the five things one needs to know about Sarita Mor:

Silver medal at Asian Championships

Sarita Mor’s breakthrough performance came in 2017 at the Asian Championships. The tournament was held in New Delhi, India and the youngster was under pressure to deliver. Back then, she was contesting in the 58kg category.

The grappler from Haryana managed to win a silver medal at the event, which was her first major international honour. That was the occasion when wrestling enthusiasts began to take notice of Sarita Mor. She showed a lot of promise and positive signs, despite losing out on the gold. She was among four female wrestlers who won a silver at the 2017 Asian Championships.

Two-time Asian Championships gold medalist

Sarita Mor tasted early success in her career but did not stop there. She went a step further at the 2020 edition of the Asian Championships, also held in New Delhi, India. The grappler was contesting in the 59kg category and won the gold medal on this occasion. Divya Kekran and Pinki were the other gold medal-winning female wrestlers at the tournament.

Sarita followed her gold medal win with another gold at the 2021 Asian Championships held in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Vinesh Phogat, Anshu Malik and Divya Kakran also managed to win gold in their respective categories.

Personal life

As mentioned before, Sarita Mor hails from Sonepat in Haryana. The district is famous for producing world-class wrestlers. It has become a hub of wrestling in the country, where the cream of the crop is seen competing. Sarita took up wrestling in school as a 12-year-old.

She is married to a former Asian Wrestling Championship medalist Rahul Mann. He is also Sarita’s coach and oversees her training. The grappler is also employed by the Indian Railways as a reward for her brilliant domestic and international performances. 

A kabaddi enthusiast 

Interestingly, Sarita Mor did not choose wrestling as her first sport. She was a kabaddi enthusiast as a child and used to play the sport in her school. However, she dropped the sport due to the strictness of her coach.

This pushed her towards wrestling. While Sarita’s dreams of playing kabaddi professionally did not take flight, her career in wrestling did. Since she was a 12-year-old girl, wrestling has been her passion and career.

Bronze medalist at World Championships

Sarita Mor wrote her name into the history books by becoming only the sixth female wrestler from India to win a bronze at the World Championships. She overcame Sweden's Johanna Lindborg in the bronze medal bout by a 8-2 scoreline. 

The 26-year-old joined the likes of Alka Tomar (2006), Geeta Phogat (2012), Babita Phogat (2012), Pooja Dhanda (2018) and Vinesh Phogat (2019) in achieving the honour. Sarita was one of the few positives for the Indian contingent from the World Championships.

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