Bajrang Punia claims bronze to becomes 1st Indian to win four medals at World Wrestling Championships

Bengaluru, Sept. 19: Olympic medallist Bajrang Punia once again found himself in the record books as he captured bronze medal in the men's 65kg category of the ongoing World Wrestling Championship 2022 on Sunday (Sept. 19).

The ace Indian wrestler handed Puerto Rico's Sebastian C Rivera an 11-9 defeat in the bronze medal bout. Bajrang defeated Rivera on the basis of VPO1-Points and the opponent's scores.

The win saw Punia become the only Indian grappler to claim four medals at the World Wrestling Championship.
Bajrang, who won a bronze in last year's Tokyo Olympics, eked out a close win on points to once again take Indian wrestling to new heights.

Bajrang, who lost to John Michael Diakomihalis of USA in the quarterfinals, qualified for the bronze medal contest through repechage round where he defeated Vazgen Tevanyan of Armenia 7-6 by points.

It is Bajrang's third bronze at the worlds. The celebrated Indian wrestler had earlier won a bronze at in 2013, silver in 2018 and bronze in 2019. India had fielded a 30-member team for the ongoing World Championships but produced a below-par performance, securing just two medals.

Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Ravi Kumar Dahiya had crashed out early and failed to secure a podium finish. Besides Bajrang, Vinesh Phogat won her second World Championship bronze medal in the women's 53kg category. Vinesh had defeated Emma Malmgren of Sweden 8-0 to claim the bronze here.

Source: Inputs from PTI