Tokyo: India added their sixth Tokyo Olympics medal on Saturday as Bajrang Punia defeated Daulet Niyazbekov of Kazakhstan in the 65kg bronze medal match. The former Asian Games gold medallist, who went down to Haji Aliyev of Azerbaijan in the semifinals, dominated Niyazbekov outclassing him with an 8-0 scoreline by technical superiority.
This is not the first time these two were meeting each other. Earlier, Bajrang lost the World Championships semifinal to 8-time national champion Niyazbekov in 2019 but when the two wrestlers met earlier this year, Bajrang had hammered the Kazakhstan wrestler 9-0 in Ali Aliyev.
Bajrang’s bronze is the seventh medal in wrestling at the Olympics for India. He is the second Indian to bag a medal in this Olympics after Ravi Kumar Dahiya. KD Jadhav was the first Indian wrestler to win an Olympic medal at the 1952 Helsinki Games which was then followed by bronze and silver by Sushil Kumar in the 2008 and 2012 Games in Beijing and Rio de Janeiro, respectively.
.@BajrangPunia makes 🇮🇳 proud #sportslightmedia #TeamIndia #olympics2020 #Tokyo #TokyoOlympics2020 #ind #Cheer4India pic.twitter.com/iTkcjCavJ9
— Sportslight Media (@SportslightMed_) August 7, 2021
Yogeshwar Dutt clinched the bronze in London after winning three bouts in a row in repechage. Four years later Sakshi Malik became India’s first female wrestler to bag a medal when she clinched the bronze in Rio.
Ravi Kumar then became the first Indian wrestler to clinch a medal at the ongoing Games when he stunned Kazakhstan’s Nurislam Sanayev to enter the final and assure himself of at least a silver medal. Bajrang’s bronze also equalled India’s best at the Olympics. In 2012 in London, India won six medals.
