Asian Wrestling Championships | Bajrang Punia Wins Gold In 65 Kg Category

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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Bajrang Punia has won the Gold medal in the Men's 65 kg Freestyle category at the Asian Wrestling Championships 2017 by beating Korea's Lee Seung Chul 6-2. After conceding the lead in the first round, Punia staged a remarkable comeback to dominate the second round to win the Gold.

In the Gold medal bout, Punia gave away two points in the opening half and trailed 0-2 at the break. But, the 23-year-old made a roaring comeback in the second half and didn’t allow his Korean counterpart to earn any more points.

His first point came by pushing Lee Seung out of the mat and then he took the Korean down for earn two more and lead 3-2. From there on, it was all hunky-dory for Punia as he displayed an attacking style of wrestling and added three more points to secure the Gold in style.

After the victory, Bajrang celebrated by taking a victory lap with the tricolour on his shoulders and was cheered by London Olympics medallist wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt, who was present at the gallery to witness the Gold medal match. 

"I asked him (Bajrang) to attack all the time and not be defensive and that paid dividends. Winning a gold medal in the Asian Championships is a really big thing," Dutt said, reported NDTV. 

After winning the gold medal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the wrestler for winning the Gold medal and said the country was proud of his accomplishment.

"Congratulations to Bajrang Punia for securing the Gold in Asian Wrestling Championship. India is very proud of his exemplary accomplishment," he tweeted.

It turned out to be a mixed day for the Indian contingent as the Women’s team had to be satisfied with Silver and Bronze medals. However, with six medals overall- four silver and two bronze, it was Indian Women’s best ever performance at the Asian Championships. The previous best was in 2003, in which India had won a total of five medals that included two Silver and three Bronze.

In the men's 97kg category, Satywart Kadian couldn't make it to the bronze medal play-off, going down in his repechage bout to Batzul Ulziisaikhan of Mongolia 5-8 in a closely-fought encounter. In the qualification round, Satywart had lost to Uzbek grappler Magomed Ibragimov 2-2, but the Indian got a chance to fight in the Repechage after Ibragimov made to the final round.

On the other hand, Olympian Sandeep Tomar, who was competing in the 57-kg category, bowed out of the tournament after suffering a knee injury. In the men's 74kg category, Jitender crashed out of the tournament after losing to Japanese Tsubasa Asai in the quarterfinal round 7-8.

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