Jakarta: A dominating Bajrang Punia opened India’s gold medal account at the Asian Games, bringing smiles and relief to the Indian camp which was jolted by the early exit of star wrestler Sushil Kumar here Sunday.
An in-form Bajrang won his maiden Asian Games gold in the 65kg category but a rusty Sushil lost his last chance to add an Asiad gold to his collection of medals after losing his qualification bout 3-5 to Bahrain’s Adam Batirov in the 74kg category.
Bajrang came into the Games after winning three tournaments — Commonwealth Games, Tbilisi Grand Prix and Yasar Dogu International and carried on with his superlative show here. Such was his domination that the 24-year-old from Haryana won all his bouts, till the final, by technical superiority.
He outclassed Uzbekistan’s Sirojiddin Khasanov (13-3), Tajikistan’s Fayziev Abdulqosim (12-2) and Mongolia’s N Batmagnai Batchuluu (10-0) to storm into the gold medal bout.
In the final, he was tested by Japan’s Daichi Takatani but Bajrang held his nerves to prevail 11-8 in an exciting battle. He raced to a 6-0 lead but the Japanese kept at it and put Bajrang under immense pressure.
Bajrang emulated his mentor Yogeshwar Dutt, who won gold in the last edition, and is now one of the few Asiad gold medal winners in wrestling. Kartar Singh (1978, 1986), Satpal Singh (1982), Rajinder Singh (1978), Changdi Ram (1970) and Maruti Mane (1962) are among Asiad gold winners from India.
A lot was expected from all five wrestlers in action but Sandeep Tomar (57kg), Mausam Khatri (97kg) and Pawan Kumar (86kg) faded out early. Pawan got a chance to redeem his campaign but lost his repechage round by technical superiority (0-11) to local boy Fahriansyah.
The biggest blow though came when two-time Olympic medallist Sushil, who was exempted from Asiad trails, lost tamely. The Indian led 2-1 after the first period with a takedown but the Bahraini made a strong comeback to silence the Indian fans.
Sushil created two opportunities to score in the second period but could not convert them while Batirov did not miss his chances. Batirov led 3-2 with a takedown and then pushed the Indian out for a win.
For Sushil to remain in the medal contention, Batirov needed to make the final. But the Bahraini lost his quarterfinal bout 2-8 to Japan’s Yuhi Fujinami, resulting to Sushil’s exit.
Sandeep, who was the last wrestler to book a berth for the Games through trials, showed immense promise before crashing out in the quarterfinals. He won his second round 12-8 against Turkmenistan’s Rustem Nazarov but was outwitted 9-15 by Iran’s Reza Atrinagharchi.
Tomar put up a brave fight and was locked 6-6 with his tactically superior Iranian rival. In the second period, though, Reza just ran away with the bout with his big-scoring moves. The Iranian later lost his semifinal bout, which resulted to Tomar crashing out.
