Tokyo Olympics: Wrestler Deepak Punia loses in bronze medal match
Indian wrestler Deepak Punia lost the bronze medal match at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Punia lost the men's 86kg freestyle bronze medal match by a 4-2 margin. He was beaten by San Marino's Myles Amine to miss out on a medal at the Olympics. Just earlier, Ravi Kumar Dahiya (57kg) settled for a silver medal. Here's more.
Notably, Punia lost the semi-final bout against USA's David Morris Taylor in the men's 86kg freestyle wrestling on Wednesday. Taylor won the bout comprehensively by a 10-0 margin in a one-sided affair. In his opening bout, he beat Nigeria's Ekerekeme Agiomor by a 12-1 margin. In the quarters, Punia came back strongly to beat China's Zushen Lin by 6-3 in a closely-contested match.
Amine became San Marino's first-ever Olympic qualifier in wrestling when he reached the semi-finals of the 2019 World Championships at 86kg in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. The promising wrestler won a silver at the European championship in 2020. He also retained his place on the podium this year with a bronze. Amine also won a bronze at the 2019 European Games.
Amine was a flag bearer for San Marino at the opening ceremony. He won his opening match over Colombian Carlos Arturo Izquierdo Mendez 12-2. Amine lost to David Taylor 2-12. He entered the repechage round when Taylor beat Punia in the semis. In the repechage, Amine beat Belarus' Ali Shabanau 2-0 to enter the bronze medal bout against Punia.
The first period of the match saw Punia start strongly as he was ahead by a point. Punia had to hold on with just 40 seconds remaining in the bout but suffered heartbreak in. the dying stages. Amine earned crucial points to seal the bout.
