Wrestler Bajrang Punia to fight for Bronze, suffers defeat in Semi-Finals

Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia was in action in the 65 KG Semi-Finals against Haji Aliyev of Azerbaijan at the Tokyo Olympics.

Both the wrestlers started on a cautious note in the opening minutes. Haji was then charged for passivity which gave Bajrang the first point of the matchup. Haji came back strongly with four points to build a 4-1 lead by the end of the first period. The lead of Haji went up to 8-1 in the opening seconds of the second period. 

The Indian wrestler fought back and took the score to 8-3 with a minute to go in the clock. Haji then managed to push Bajrang out of the circle to win a point and was quickly met with a two-point return from Bajrang. However, Haji took home the win in the end with a score of 12-5.

Bajrang will now wrestle for the Bronze medal in the repechage bracket on 7 August 2021. 

Win in the Quarter-Finals

Bajrang secured a win by fall against Morteza Ghiasi of Iran in the quarter-finals to progress. It was Ghiasi that score the first point and held on to the lead for a long time before Bajrang came back and took the score to 2-1. The Iranian wrestler was constantly attacking the injured knee of Bajrang but the Indian managed to turn around the offense and secured a fall to book his place in the semi-finals. 

Entry of Bajrang Punia into the Quarter-Finals

Earlier today, Bajrang Punia secured the first point of the match after Akmataliev was penalized for passivity. But the young wrestler came back strongly and pushed Bajrang out of the yellow circle to level the scores.

Right at the buzzer of the first period, Bajrang Punia scored two points to lead 3-1 heading into the second period. In the last minute of the period, Akmataliev pushed Bajrang out of the circle and leveled the scores to 3-3. Bajrang, however, picked up the win as he had the highest-scoring single move in the match.

Seema Bisla suffers defeat

It was the Tunisian that opened the scoring just seconds before the first period. The wrestlers went into the second period with Hamdi leading 1-0 as a result. Hamdi then secured one more point for pushing Seema out of the yellow circuit. Seema got a point under her name with a similar move shortly after to take it to 2-1.

With fifteen seconds left, Hamdi managed to score one more point and secured a comfortable win of 3-1 to progress into the next round.

Ravi Kumar Dahiya gets Silver Medal

Earlier, Indian Wrestler star Ravi Kumar Dahiya had secured a  medal for India in the 57 KG Category at the Tokyo Olympics. Ravi went up against Zaur Uguev of Russia in the Finals today and settled for a Silver Medal. Uguev had a strong showing throughout the match and although Ravi tried to stage returns at different parts of the matchup, it was fended off successfully by the Russian who went on to win the Gold Medal.

Deepak Punia and Vinesh Phogat bow out without a medal

Deepak Punia missed out on a Bronze Medal in the closing seconds of the Bronze Medal matchup. It was the Indian that started with the points. He got an early 2-0 lead which was then reduced to 2-1 by Amine. The second period went without any points but in the closing seconds, Amine managed to score 2 points and got one more point as a result of a failed challenge from India and took home the 4-2 win and the Bronze Medal. 

Top seed Vinesh Phogat, meanwhile, failed to make it to the semi-finals as she suffered a defeat to  Vanesa Kaladzinskaya of Belarus. The repechage hopes of Vinesh came crashing down later in the day when Vanesa Kaladzinskaya failed to progress into the finals of the 53 KG Category. Vanesa suffered a close defeat in the semi-finals which in turn, ended the hopes of Vinesh to win a Bronze through a repechage.

What are your thoughts on the performance of the Indian wrestlers at the Olympics? Let us know in the comment section below.

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