New Delhi: Bajrang Punia provided India its first gold medal as he posted a come-from-behind victory over Seungchul Lee of Korea in men’s 65kg freestyle on the penultimate day of the Asian Wrestling Championship here Saturday.
Sarita, meanwhile, bagged a silver medal in women’s 58kg category. After registering a fabulous 6-2 win, Bajrang celebrated by taking a victory lap with the tri-colour on his shoulders.
In his gold medal bout, the 23-year-old Indian conceded two points in the opening half to lag behind 0-2 at the break. However, Bajrang made a strong comeback in the second half as he did not allow his rival from Korea to earn any more points.
He first pushed his opponent out of the mat to take one point and then took the Korean down for two more to lead 3-2. From there on, Bajrang displayed an attacking game and never let his rival come back into the contest. He subsequently added three more points to his credit to wrap up the bout in style.
However, gold medal eluded Indian women wrestlers even as this was their best ever performance at the Asian Championship with six medals, including four silver and two bronze. In the 2003 edition, India had won a total of five medals that included two silver and three bronze.
Sarita lost 0-6 to Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyzstan in the final of women’s 58kg to settle for a silver. Having climbed down two kilograms to 58kg from 60kg after Sakshi Malik and she interchanged their respective weight categories, Sarita came up with a fine performance before going down tamely in her gold medal bout.
PTI
