Tokyo Olympics: Bajrang Punia clinches bronze medal in wrestling
India have secured their sixth medal in the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Wrestler Bajrang Punia defeated Daulet Niyazbekov of Kazakhstan (65kg) 8-0 to win the bronze medal match. The 27-year-old has become the sixth Indian to win an Olympic medal in wrestling after Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav, Sushil Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt, Sakshi Malik, and Ravi Dahiya. Here are further details.
In his first bout, the pre-quarters-finals, Bajrang defeated of Ernazar Akmataliev of Kyrgyzstan. Although the bout ended 3-3, Bajrang won by way of high-scoring move. Bajrang then trounced Iran's Morteza Cheka Ghiasi in his second bout (quarter-finals). The Indian lost the semi-final to Rio bronze medalist Haji Aliyev. However, he still remained in contention of a medal.
Besides Olympics, Bajrang has won three medals at World Championships (bronze in 2013 and 2019, silver in 2018). He is the only India to win multiple medals at the event. Bajrang has won a gold medal each at the Asian Games (2018) and Commonwealth Games (2018). He has also clinched two gold medals each at Commonwealth Championships (2016-2017) and Asian Championships (2017 and 2019).
Earlier, Ravi Dahiya won a historic silver after losing 4-7 to Russia's Zavur Uguev in the gold medal match (57kg). He remains only the second Indian wrestler after Sushil to win a silver medal at Olympics. The former could have become the second Indian to win an individual Olympic gold. Dahiya won India's first medal in wrestling at the Tokyo Games.
