Gold in 30 seconds

Rome, March 8

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Olympics-bound Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia pulled off a two-pointer in the last 30 seconds of the gold medal bout to defend his title at the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series event. The result also propelled Bajrang back to world No. 1.

Up against Mongolia’s Tulga Tumur Ochir, Bajrang was trailing 0-2 till the final moments of the 65kg final but managed to level the scores, 30 seconds from the final whistle. Since the last scoring point came from the Indian, he was declared the winner on Sunday night.

Leg defence

Bajrang’s leg defence seemed to be a particularly improved aspect of his game after the one-year break, forced by the coronavirus pandemic. The 27-year-old, though, said he needs to work more on his defence as he is eyeing a medal at the Tokyo Games. Bajrang is one of the three men’s Indian wrestlers to have qualified for the Tokyo Games.

“I found that my leg defence has improved compared to where it was before the break. I have got better but it still needs more work. I also need to be better on my attacking moves,” Bajrang told PTI.

“Look, the 65kg category is extremely competitive. The Mongolian (Ochir) has qualified for the Tokyo Games. He is not a weak opponent. All the wrestlers in this category… we are all almost at same level,” he said.

“It is such a sport, that you go up and down. I am just glad that I am back on the mat and competing,” he said.

Bajrang climbed one spot in the rankings. The fresh rankings are based on results of only this tournament which means that gold medallists get the top spot.

Bronze for Kaliramana

Vishal Kaliramana won a bronze in the non-Olympics 70kg category with a 5-1 win over Syrbaz Talgat from Kazakhstan. Narsingh Pancham Yadav lost his bronze medal playoff 5-0 to Kazakhstan’s Daniyar Kaisanov.

India returned with seven medals from the event, with Vinesh Phogat and Sarita Mor winning gold and a silver, respectively, in the women’s event. Greco-Roman wrestlers — Neeraj (63kg), Kuldeep Malik (72kg) and Naveen (130kg) — bagged bronze medals. — PTI