World No.1 Bajrang Punia won India’s first gold medal at the Asian Wrestling Championships 2019 in Xi’an, China on Tuesday with a resounding win in the final.
Bajrang was fighting in the 65kg category and beat Sayatbek Okassov of Kazakhstan 12-7 to bag the top honours
Bajrang had a brilliant fight in the final where he fought back from a big deficit to eventually take the match and the yellow metal.
At the end of the first period, Bajrang was trailing 2-5 against Okassov and with just 60 seconds to go, Bajrang was down 2-7. However, the world No.1 fought back from there and went on a spree of 10 straight points to win the match 12-7.
Bajrang was a pre-tournament favourite considering his ranking and he stood big on his top billing.
Praveen Rana had to settle for silver in the 79kg category after he lost to 3-0 to Bahman Mohammad Teymouri of Iran.
Satyavrat Kadian, on the other hand, bagged a bronze medal in the 97kg category.
Apart from these two, in the women’s event, India’s top wrestlers Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik, Pooja Dhanda and Divya Kakran are also in contention.
