Bajrang Punia reclaimed his Asian Championships crown by winning the gold medal in the men’s 65 kg category in Xi’an, China. Punia defeated Asian games bronze medallist Sayatbek Okassov of Kazakshtan 12-7 in a thrilling final on Tuesday.
Parveen Rana in 79 kg and Satyawart Kadian in 97 kg won the silver and bronze medal respectively as India ended the day with three medals on day one of the competition.
The world No 1 wrestler was trailing 2-5 at the end of the first period but made a stunning comeback to win the bout and the gold medal, the first for India at this tournament.
Punia had won the same title in 2017 in New Delhi but finished with a bronze medal in 2018 after losing to Daichi Takatani in Bhiskek.
In a bout which saw Bajrang fall behind 0-4 after the first minute, it was Okassov who maintained a 5-2 lead at the break. Punia suffered another takedown soon after the break and was trailing 2-7.
With little over one minute left, he launched a leg-attack on Okassov to take two points to bring down the deficit to 4-7. The tired Kazak wrestler failed to defend the next attack from Punia, who combined three gut-wrenches for exposure to lead 12-7, which remained the final score.
Earlier, Bajrang comfortably defeated Uzbekistan’s Sirojiddin Khasanov 12-1 in the semi-final. He began the day with a technical superiority win over Charles Fern of Sri Lanka and then a 6-0 win over Peyman Biabani of Iran.
In the 79 kg final, Rana went down 0-3 against 2017 world championships bronze medallist Bahman Teymouri of Iran to finish with silver medal. Though Rana tried hard to get things going, some solid defence from Teymouri made it impossible for his to complete his attacks.
Kadian won the third medal for India as he defeated Gao of China 8-1 in the 97 kg bronze medal play-off.
In the 57 kg weight division, Ravi Kumar lost the bronze medal bout to former world champion Yuki Takahashi 3-5. He had entered the bout after winning his repechage against Chia Tso Liu of Taipei 4-0. Rajneesh bowed out of the tournament early in 70kg category.
Buy an annual Scroll Membership to support independent journalism and get special benefits.
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!