Wrestler Bajrang Punia has made the country proud after winning the bronze medal in Men’s Freestyle 65kg category in the Tokyo Olympics 2020. He beat Kazakhstan’s Daulet Niyazbekov 8-0 in the bronze medal match. With this medal, India now has won 6 medals so far including 2 silver and 4 bronze medals.
Agencies
With Punia’s bronze, India equal their best ever Olympic medal haul of six achieved in 2012 London edition.
As soon as news of his victory became official, congratulatory messages poured in from across all quarters. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first to wish the wrestler for his victory.
Soon after his victory, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar announced a prize of Rs 2.5 crore for Punia along with a govt job, and a plot of land at 50% concession.
Setback in semi-final, came back stronger
Punia suffered a huge setback as he lost to Aliyev Haji of Azerbaijan, going down 12-5 on points in the semifinals of the 65kg freestyle wrestling.
Punia, who had survived a scare in the pre-quarterfinals against Akmataliev Ernazar of Kyrgyzstan and outplayed Ghiasi Cheka Morteza of Iran in the semifinals, went behind 1-4 on points in the first period and then came under repeated attacks from the Azerbaijani in the second to lose by a big margin.
Punia did fight back in the second period by claiming four points but Aliyev, the bronze medallist in 57kg in Rio de Janeiro and a three-time world champion in 61kg, proved too strong with late attacks.