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Bajrang Punia has become the “new face of Indian wrestling”. The 24-year-old Jhajjar-born wrestler won a gold in the 65-kg category to give India a fine start on the opening day of the Asian Games.
With Sushil Kumar, the 2008 and 2012 Olympic medallist, fading away, and Yogeshwar Dutt becoming a mentor for Punia, it was only a matter of time that he became the latest star.
Sunday’s gold gives Punia a “Golden Slam” of sorts. He has now won almost all the gold medals in this category. Though he lost in the 2018 Asian Championships semi-final and had to be content with a bronze in Bishkek, he won gold at the 2017 Asian Championships in New Delhi last year. Also in 2017, he won the Asian Indoor Games in Ashgabat, Turkemenistan; this year in April, he emerged as champion at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Punia also won the Tbilisi Grand Prix gold in Georgia this year.
Soon after the win, Bajrang, who considers Olympic medallist Yogeshwar Dutt as his hero and mentor, said, “My dream now is to win a gold in Tokyo in 2020 and at the World Championships.”
He added, “To win a gold medal at the Asian Games was the goal after Commonwealth Games. The competition in Asia is quite strong.”
The only gold medals missing from Punia’s collection are the World Championships and the Olympic Games. While he did win a bronze in in Bantam weight (53 kg) in the 2013 World Championship, he is yet to score at the Olympics.
Bajrang opened his Jakarta campaign by beating Uzbek Khasanov Sirojiddin 13-3 in the 1/8 finals. Punia faced a tough fight in the first round, but ran up a 6-3 lead before outclassing his rival 7-0 within two minutes of the second round.
In the quarter-finals, Bajrang got to 9-2 lead in the first round and closed it out within 31 seconds of the second for a 12-2 win over Tajikistan’s Fayziev Abdulqosim. The semi-final clash against 29-year-old Mongolian Batchuluun Batmagnai followed the same pattern. Bajrang went 8-0 in the first round and closed it out in just 56 seconds of the second, winning 10-0 by technical superiority.
India also won a bronze medal in shooting, when Ravi Kumar and Apurvi Chandela finished third behind Taipei and China in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team event.
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