Rio de Janeiro, Aug 18 (UNI) India's hunt for a medal in the ongoing Rio Olympics finally came to an end as Sakshi Malik outplayed Aisuluu Tynybekova 8-5 in the 58kg freestyle wrestling bronze medal bout here today. In her second repechage round the Indian trailed 0-5 with only two minutes to go. But the diminutive Sakshi Malik staged a stunning comeback and bewildered Asian champion Aisuluu Tynybekova(Kyrgyzstan) as she clocked eight points to claim India's first ever women's wrestling medal in Olympics. The Indians erupted in joy as there was more of a sense of relief of having won a medal with only three days to close before the competitions end in this edition of the Olympic Games. Sakshi started tentative in the first round and was cautioned twice by the referee for being too negative, following which Tynybekova managed to collect four points with swift grabs of Indian’s legs to take a 5-0 lead. Realizing that it was a do or die situation for her the Indian retaliated with such swiftness that Kazakh was taken aback by surprise. Salshi knew that she had no option but to go all out on the offensive and that is what she did. But as time ticked away , Sakshi became more aggressive blitz, and was able to bring herself to parity with just a few seconds left, scoring 2, 2 and 1. In the dying moments the score was 5-5, the bronze was within reach of Tynybekova as she had pulled off the higher scoring manoeuvre for the match. But Sakshi took the attack to her opponent in the last five seconds and was able to turn her over at the edge of the danger zone. The score was 7-5 as the time ran out, and the Indians started celebrating but the Kazhaks refused to give up and lodged a protest. Their referral was rejected, and a penalty point added to Sakshi to make it an 8-5 win on points. “i am proud that I got my country the first medal in this Olympics” a visibly thrilled Sakshi told media persons after the win. “I am very sure that this medal will open the door for many more to come in next three days. I am confident that my fellow wrestlers will come up with more medal winning performance” she added. “It was during the break my coach advised me that only three minutes are left, so don’t try to get into hand to hand contest but attack her from outside and that paid off” She said “Yogeshwar Dutt and Sushil Kumar are my idols.They both have won the Olympic medals and I am happy that i followed there footsteps” Earlier also , Sakshi had to come from behind to beat g Johanna Mattsson of Sweden 5-4 and then Mariana Cherdivara 5-5 to set up a quarterfinal clash with former world championship silver medallist Valeriia Koblova of Russia. Koblova defeated Sakshi 9-2 , and then went through to set up a final against Kaori Icho of Japan, which opened a window for Sakshi to hope for a bronze via repechage. She beat Orkhon Purevdorj of Mongolia 12-3 to set up the bronze medal match against Tynybekova.. Interestingly in 2008.Sushil Kumar also won a bronze after getting a chance in repechage . Four years later Yogeshwar Dutt also bagged a bronze in London in repechage. UNI XC VS CJ