Rio de Janeiro: Finally India opened its medal account in Rio Olympics on the 12th Day of the mega event when Sakshi Malik won the bronze medal in 58 kg freestyle category of women wrestling, here on Thursday early morning.

Sakshi defeated Kyrgyzstan wrestler Aisuluu Tynybekova by 8-5 in bronze medal match. Trailing in the first set by 0-5; Sakshi earned eight points in last three minutes to win the bronze.

Sakshi, meanwhile, became the first women wrestler to have won a medal in Olympics. Overall four wrestlers, including KD Yadav (bronze in 1956), Sushil Kumar (bronze in 2008 Beijing), Sushil (silver) and Yogeshwar Dutt (bronze) in 2012 London have won medal at the mega event.

Sakshi also became only the fourth Indian women sportsperson to have won a medal in Olympics. Earlier, Karnam Maleshwari had won a bronze in 2000 Sydney Olympics, while Saina Nehwal and Mary Kom had won bronze medals in 2012 London.

Meanwhile, Kaori Icho of Japan won the gold medal in the category while Russia's Valeria Koblova, who had defeated Sakshi in the quarter-finals, bagged the silver.

Earlier, the 23-year-old girl from Mokhra village near Rohtak in Haryana had crashed out of contention after 2-9 loss to Valeria in the quarter-finals. But with Valeria making it to the final, Sakshi qualified for the repechage round for a shot at the bronze medal. She defeated Orkhon Purevdorj of Mongolia 12-3 in the Repechage Round 2 to move into the bronze medal round.

I was confident I'll get a chance.I kept on telling myself that you have to fight,you must win a medal: #SakshiMalik pic.twitter.com/qtbx9n0thf

— ANI (@ANI_news) August 18, 2016