Tokyo Olympics wrestling: Flawless Bajrang Punia wins historic bronze medal

Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia wins Tokyo Olympics bronze medal in 65kg category with comfortable win.

Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia became just the fifth Indian wrestler to win an Olympic bronze medal, defeating Daulet Niyazbekov of Kazakhstan 8-0 in the bronze medal contest for 65kg category at Tokyo Olympics. Bajrang emulated KD Jadhav, Sushil Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt and Sakshi Malik by winning bronze. Apart from this, Sushil (in 2012) and Ravi Dahiya (in 2020) have silver medals from wrestling in Olympics. Bajrang managed to notch up two early points against the No. 3-seeded Kazakh grappler early in the first period and added four more points with a couple of moves with just over one minute left in the first period to extend his lead to six. With 20 seconds left in the period, two more points for Bajrang got him to touching distance of a technical superiority win.  If his defence let him down in the semifinal against Hazi Aliev, Bajrang's smart attacking moves made him a 8-0 winner against Kazakhstan's Niyazbekov, to whom he had lost in the semifinals of the 2019 World Championship.