Bajrang Wins Bronze at Tokyo Olympics; India Equal 2012 London Games' Tally
Bajrang Punia had recovered from a knee injury just before the Tokyo Olympics, but said he was fully fit.
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India’s Bajrang Punia's won his bout on Saturday evening to take an Olympic Bronze medal in the Men's Freestyle 65kg event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Bajrang beat Kazakhstan's Daulet Niyazbekov 8-0 and won by points.
Bajrang’s Bronze medal is India’s sixth in the campaign at Tokyo and second for wrestling at the event as well.
The Indian started out the more aggressive of the two wrestlers and took a 2-0 lead in the first round. The Indian almost got stuck in a lock and conceded points, but managed to wriggle out.
In the second round, the first minute saw Niyazbekov defend brilliantly as Bajrang attacked, looking for more points.
The Indian found a way through and had Niyazbekov on the mat as he wrestled him to the mat and repeated that soon after to race away to a 6-0 lead.
The Indian was not going to give it away and didn’t let Niyazbekov get an inch in the rest of the bout as he picked up more points to make it an 8-0 win.
Bajrang looked a more aggressive wrestler in the Bronze medal game than in the semi-final.
In his 2020 Tokyo Olympics campaign, Bajrang defeated Ernazar Akmataliev, defeated Morteza Ghiasi Cheka and lost to Haji Aliyev in the semi-final.
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