24 | Monday, November 18, 2019 CHINA DAILY SPORTS MARTIAL ARTS ASIAD Hangzhou ‘Indian Tigress’ roars into spotlight gets its Wrestler Ritu Phogat proves a surprise hit with impressive MMA debut in Beijing Games By SUN XIAOCHEN [email protected] Indian wrestler Ritu Phogat stole face on the show at One Championship’s return to Beijing on Saturday with a ruthless performance in her debut By MA ZHENHUAN in Hangzhou for the mixed martial arts [email protected] promotion. Despite varied results for the local Preparations for the 2022 Asian favorites at the show, ‘Age of Drga­ Games in Hangzhou are already in ons’, One Championship’s third event full swing, according to a top local in the capital since 2014, proved a official. huge hit at Wukesong Arena, where Chen Weiqiang, deputy secretary­ 13,000 spectators oohed and aahed general of the Games’ organizing at every punch, kick and knockdown committee and vice­mayor of the on the 11­bout card, which included city, told China Daily in an exclusive two world­title fights. interview that next year Hangzhou Chinese kickboxer Wang Wen­ will work on improving the interiors feng failed to wrest the world fly­ of the venues, launch the torch weight belt off defending champion design and define the main frame­ Ilias Ennahachi after losing a five­ work for the opening ceremony. round nail­biter to the Dutch­Mo­ Dec 15 marks the 1,000­day count­ roccan striker by split decision, down for the Asiad, and Chen said while Meng Bo gave the home fans the organizing committee is dedi­ something to cheer when she cated to enhancing local residents’ knocked out Argentine veteran enthusiasm for the Games by posi­ Laura Balin at 2:18 in the first tioning countdown clocks at land­ round of her One Championship marks in Hangzhou and other atomweight debut. major cities in Zhejiang province, To the surprise of organizers, such as Ningbo, Jinhua and however, the highlight of the night Shaoxing. proved to be Indian wrestling sen­ Meanwhile, organizers have sation Phogat’s maiden MMA fight, teamed up with the Hangzhou­ against South Korea’s “Captain based China Academy of Art to Marvel”, Kim Nam­hee. Ritu Phogat, aka The Indian Tigress, shows no mercy in her One Championship victory over South Korea’s Kim Nam­hee at Wukesong launch a research center that facili­ The “Indian Tigress” took just Arena in Beijing on Saturday night. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY tates the design of artistic works for three minutes and 37 seconds to the Games, with a special focus on dispatch Kim in the atomweight consultation, standard formulation bout with a powerful ground­and­ silver medal at the 2017 World MMA, my grappling skills are a “I believe sooner or later, the belt Bloomage International Invest­ and quality control. pound attack that sent the capacity Under­23 Wrestling World Cham­ benefit. Takedown is very easy for will be mine,” said Meng after her ment Group. Both parties plan to “The Hangzhou Asian Games go crowd to their feet. pionships in Poland. Her ambition, me. I just do the same thing — I take TKO victory against Balin. “I don’t stage more combat sports events in far beyond a mere sports event for Already known in China for though, reaches much further than (opponents) down and I strike,” want to rush it though. I will take China as part of the deal. Asia, but rather they are a platform being depicted in hit movie Dangal that milestone. said Phogat, who won gold at the one firm step at a time.” Covering the full spectrum of for cultural and artistic exchanges — a sports biopic about her famous The 25­year­old, who he is being 2016 Commonwealth Wrestling In Saturday’s co­main event, martial arts, including Muay Thai, around the globe,” Chen said. wrestling family — Phogat said she tipped to represent India at the Championship in Singapore. Ukrainian giant Roman Kryklia kickboxing, karate and taekwondo, Hangzhou won the bid to host the was more proud to have shown the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, shocked Sharing the spotlight with Pho­ defeated another Dutch­Moroccan One is on mission to promote Asian Asian Games in September 2015, nation her combat skills than her the wrestling world by signing up gat as a victorious One Champion­ power puncher, Tarik Khbabez, via martial artists around the world, becoming the third city in China to film connection. with One to switch her focus to the ship debutant, Meng has also set a second­round TKO to avenge an having opened two offices in China host the quadrennial continental “The movie was just a brief intro­ brutal and challenging realm of her sights on a world­title shot. earlier loss and become the inaugu­ (Beijing and Shanghai) and staged event, after Beijing in 1990 and duction to my family,” Phogat told MMA. The two­time Chinese national ral One light­heavyweight kickbox­ nine events on the Chinese main­ Guangzhou, the capital of Guang­ China Daily through an interpreter “My goal is to win an MMA world MMA champion, who missed two ing world champion. land in total. dong province, in 2010. after the fight. “Through MMA and title in two years,” she said. earlier opportunities to make her China’s Miao Litao lost his straw­ “One Championship remains In September, karate, sport climb­ tonight’s performance I want to Currently honing her craft at One debut due to injuries, said she weight clash against Filipino strik­ dedicated to delivering Chinese ing and baseball/softball were add­ build my own identity as a competi­ Singapore’s world­renowned can’t wait to launch her challenge er Jeremy Miado in the opening martial arts fans the very best in ed to the list of 37 sports already tive MMA athlete. This was the first Evolve gym, Phogat considers her for the women’s atomweight gold­ bout of the night after being sports entertainment,” said the approved for the Games, taking the step in that direction.” wrestling background as an advan­ en belt, which is currently held by knocked out by a flying knee at 3:01 promotion’s president, Teh Hua total number of competition events Guided by her father, Mahavir tage in MMA, but realizes she needs Angela Lee of Singapore. in the first round. Fung. to 40. Singh Phogat, a renowned wres­ to bring her striking and submis­ As a tuneup, Meng has a prefer­ Earlier in the day, One Champi­ “Showcasing our elite Chinese The 19th edition of the Asiad will tling coach in India, since she was 8, sion skills up to par to become the ence for facing Japanese icon and onship announced a strategic part­ One Championship athletes and take place from Sept 10­25, 2022, Phogat defied prejudice in her complete package. two­time world­title challenger Mei nership with the owner of giving them the global platform to and for the first time will feature native country to win India’s first “For me as a wrestler making it to Yamaguchi. Wukesong Arena, the Beijing­based shine is our goal.” athletes from Oceania. Digest TENNIS SOCCER amount. Garrett must meet with Outgoing ATP Italian coach fired for NFL commissioner Roger Goodell Federer reckons changing of chief reflects on before his reinstatement is consid­ overseeing 27­0 rout ered. ‘miracle’ tenure The coach of an Italian junior “I made a terrible mistake,” Gar­ league team was fired on Saturday rett said in a statement on Friday. the guard may be imminent LONDON — Departing ATP for inflicting a humiliating 27­0 “I lost my cool and what I did was chief Chris Kermode describes his defeat on an opponent. selfish and unacceptable. longevity in the role as “a miracle”, Paolo Brogelli, president of “I know that we are all responsi­ LONDON — After dominating such has been the delicate balan­ Invictasauro, a club based in Gros­ ble for our actions and I can only the tennis world for so long, Roger cing act of keeping both players seto, Tuscany, slammed his team’s prove my true character through Federer thinks the sport’s Big Three and tournament owners happy. win over rival Marina Calcio as my actions moving forward. I could face their toughest challenge The 55­year­old Briton is look­ “disrespectful”. want to apologize to Mason yet from a new generation in 2020. ing forward to a well­earned holi­ “We learned with amazement Rudolph, my teammates, our Federer’s 2019 season ended with day in January once his tenure and regret the score of the match entire organization, our fans and a semifinal loss to Stefanos Tsitsipas ends and predicts new ATP chair­ in which our junior team scored 27 to the NFL.” on Saturday at the ATP Finals, hav­ man Andrea Gaudenzi will not find goals,” Brogelli said in a statement ing seen Novak Djokovic and Rafael the task an easy one. quoted by Italian media. ATHLETICS Nadal eliminated in the group stage Kermode was effectively ousted “The values of youth­team foot­ Bolt launches his of the tournament this week. in March when he surprisingly fail­ ball are antithetical to such a Tsitsipas, a 21­year­old Greek who ed to receive majority support of thing. e­scooter in Japan is playing at the ATP Finals for the the three players’ representatives “The opponent must always be Nine­time Olympic gold medal­ first time, is among a handful of on the ATP board despite the fact respected and today it has not ist Usain Bolt is bringing his elec­ up­and­coming talents looking to he has overseen steep rises in happened.