Wrestler Bajrang Punia beats Daulet Niyazbekov to win bronze, adds 6th medal in India’s tally

Mangalore Today News Network

Tokyo, Aug 07, 2021: Superstar wrestler Bajrang Punia on Saturday became the sixth athlete to clinch a medal for India after he won the men’s 65kg bronze medal match against Daulet Niyazbekov of Kazakhstan in the repechage round at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

 

Former Asian Games gold medallist Bajrang dominated the bout from start to finish, which ended in a 8-0 scoreline in favour of the Indian 27-year-old. Bajrang won by technical superiority.

Bajrang Punia had lost the World Championships semi-final to 8-time national champion Niyazbekov in 2019 but when the two wrestlers met earlier this year, Bajrang had hammered the Kazakhstan wrestler 9-0 in Ali Aliyev.

But Bajrang’s knee injury happened in the very next bout. Bajrang has been struggling with that issue at the Tokyo Olympics.

Bajrang’s bronze is the 7th medal in wrestling at the Olympics for India. He is the second Indian to bag a medal in this Olympics after Ravi Kumar Dahiya.

KD Jadhav was the first Indian wrestler to win an Olympic medal at the 1952 Helsinki Games which was then followed by a bronze and silver by Sushil Kumar in the 2008 and 2012 Games in Beijing and Rio, respectively, to become the first Indian athlete to win 2 individual Olympic medals.

Yogeshwar Dutt clinched the bronze in London after winning three bouts in a row in repechage. Four years later Sakshi Malik became India’s first female wrestler to bag a medal when she clinched the bronze in Rio.

Ravi Kumar then became the first Indian wrestler to clinch a medal at the ongoing Games when he stunned Kazakhstan’s Nurislam Sanayev to enter the final and assure himself of at least a silver medal.

BAJRANG’S CAMPAIGN

Bajrang was one of India’s top medal contenders in the Tokyo Games and was looking set for the top prize but he was thrashed by three-time world champion Haji Aliyev of Azerbaijan 12-5 in the semi-final.

Bajrang stormed to the semi-final with a victory via fall over Iran’s Morteza Ghiasi in quarter-final. Bajrang was trailing 0-1 throughout the bout but managed to pin Ghiasi in the second period and sealed the victory.

He earlier beat Kazakhstan’s Ernazar Akmataliev in the pre-quarters by criteria. Bajrang raced to a 3-1 lead in the first period of his first round bout.

Bajrang came into the Tokyo Olympics as one India’s biggest medal hopes. He won gold at the 2018 Asian Games then won silver at the 2019 World Championships. The latter result helped him qualify for the Olympics.

Courtesy:India Today