SANYA, April 28 (Xinhua) — China secured places in three of the eight beach wrestling finals at the Asian Beach Games on Tuesday, with Long Jia, Xie Mengyu and Lu Da advancing in their respective categories.
In the women’s 70kg event, world champion Long, 27, progressed to the final after winning all three of her matches in the group stage before beating Kazakhstan’s Seidualy Beibit 3-1 in the semifinals. She will face Vietnam’s Dang Thi Linh, who defeated India’s Jaspreet Kaur 4-0 in the other semifinal.
“The wrestlers here all prepared well, they had good physical forms, as well as amazing fighting spirit. They forced me into many tight moments,” Long told Xinhua.
“As a debutant of the event, I want to say that beach wrestling is a good sport. Compared with indoor wrestling, beach wrestling is more accessible for grassroots wrestlers, and the event can help us promote the sport,” she added.
Xie, 23, reached the women’s 60kg final after topping Group C and staging a comeback victory in the semifinals. Trailing Vietnam’s Nguyen Thi My Hanh 2-0 midway through the bout, Xie scored three points in the final minute to overturn the deficit.
“When I cut the deficit to one, I knew I had the chance to overtake my rival. I don’t care about the final result, I want to show my normal level in the next match,” Xie said.
In the men’s +90kg category, Lu booked his place in the final after four straight wins. The 2.13-meter-tall Chinese will face Iran’s Seyedamirreza Sahraeimahali for the gold medal. ■
