Bajrang Punia of India won the bronze medal in the men’s freestyle 65kg category on Saturday, defeating Daulet Niyazbekov of Kazakhstan. The second seed, who had suffered a heartbreaking 5-12 defeat in the semifinals to Azerbaijan’s Haji Aliyev, redeemed himself by winning India’s sixth medal of Tokyo 2020 with a convincing 8-0 victory in the bronze medal match.
Punia took a point in the men’s freestyle 65kg bronze medal match when Niyazbekov failed to score in the 30 seconds attacking zone. The Indians added another score to take a 2-0 lead into halftime.
Punia started off on an attacking note in the last three minutes and got two more points with a take down to take a 4-0 lead. The India then gave no chance to the wrester from Kazakhstan by scoring four more points with two more take downs.
Punia became the sixth Indian wrestler to finish on the Olympic podium after KD Jadhav, Sushil Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt, Sakshi Malik and Ravi Kumar Dahiya. This became the second instance after the 2012 London Olympics when two Indian wrestlers won medals in the same Games. Ravi Dahiya had earlier won silver in the men’s 57 kg category in this Olympic.
Twenty-seven-year-old Punia began his challenge against Kyrgyzstan’s Ernazar Akmataliev, defeating him 3-3 after scoring a later point with a smart take-down towards the end of the bout. In the 1/4 final, he enjoyed a successful second period against Morteza Cheka Ghiasi of Iran to win by fall.
Bajrang is a three-time world championships medallist. He won a bronze in the 2019 World Championships and had won a silver in 2018, both in the 65kg category. He had won a bronze at the world championships in 2013 in the 60 kg category.
He is also the reigning Commonwealth and Asian games champion of the 65kg category, having won the gold medal in 2018 in both the Games. He had won a silver medal in the 61kg category in the CWG and Asiad in 2014 respectively.
