Bajrang Punia (65 kg freestyle) and Vinod Kumar Omprakash (70 kg freestyle) won their respective bronze medal bouts at the Asia Wrestling Championships in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on Saturday to increase India’s medals tally to eight at the end of the penultimate day of the event.
Indian wrestlers have so far won one gold, one silver and six bronze medals.
One of India’s best bets of a gold medal, Punia could not repeat his effort from New Delhi last year where he was the winner in the 65 kg category. On Saturday, after being defeated in the quarterfinal by eventual silver medalist Daichi Takatani from Japan, Punia made amends by clinching the bronze with a series of dominating displays.
In the bronze medal playoffs, Punia defeated Iran’s Yones Aliakbar Emamichoghaei 10-4 while Vinod Kumar edged past Elaman Dogdurbek Uulu of Kyrgyzstan with a thrilling win in the 70 kg freestyle category, by virtue of scoring the last points in a 3-3 thriller.
Punia’s playoff bout was tighter than what the 10-4 scoreline suggests, as the Indian was trailing for most of the six-minute encounter. In a tight first half, Punia had to come from behind to make the score 2-2 heading into the break. The Iranian, adopting an aggressive approach, regained a two-point lead soon after resumption. But Punia made the most of his opponent tiring towards the fag end, launching counterattacks to level the contest with less than two minutes left and then reeled off three consecutive two-point moves to run away with the bout in the end.
Vinod Kumar, in his bronze playoff, was first trailing 1-0 at the break and then 1-3 with barely seconds left on the clock with his opponent riding on home support. But the Indian stunned the crowd by throwing down the Kyrgyz wrestler with the clock showing 7 seconds to make it 3-3 and was declared the winner for scoring the last points.
The highlight of the tournament has been Navjot Kaur’s historic gold medal on Friday in the women’s 65 kg category as she became the first Indian woman to stand atop the podium in the continental championships.
Freestyle 65 kg category:
Qualification: Bajrang defeated Saparmyrat Myradov (TKM) by virtue of fall, 16 - 5
Quarterfinal: Daichi Takatani (JPN) defeated Bajrang (IND) by virtue of points, 7 - 5
Repechage: Bajrang defeated Abdulqosim Fayziev (TJK) by virtue of technical superiority, 12 - 2
Bronze playoff: Bajrang defeated Yones Aliakbar Emamichoghaei (IRI) by virtue of points, 10 - 4
Freestyle 70 kg category:
Quarterfinal: Ikhtiyor Navruzov (UZB) defeated Vinod Kumar Omprakash by virtue of points, 6 - 3
Bronze playoff: Vinod Kumar Omprakash defeated Elaman Dogdurbek Uulu (KGZ) by virtue of points, 3 - 3
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