Tokyo Olympics: Bajrang Punia clinches bronze, beats Daulet Niyazbekov

TOKYO: Grappler Bajrang Punia won a bronze medal in the men's freestyle 65kg category in the ongoing Tokyo Olympics after defeating Kazakhstan's Daulet Niyazbekov here at the Makuhari Messe Hall A Mat B on Saturday. Punia defeated Niyazbekov 8-0 in the bronze medal match.

As a result of this win, India has equalled its tally of six medals recorded at the London Olympics 2012. In the ongoing Tokyo 2020, Mirabai Chanu (silver), PV Sindhu (bronze), Lovlina Borgohain (bronze), men's hockey team ( bronze), and Ravi Kumar Dahiya (silver) have also won medals.

In the match between Punia and Niyazbekov, the former went on to take a 2-0 lead in the first period and all the pressure was on the Kazakh opponent heading into the last three minutes.

In the final three minutes, Bajrang managed to hold his own and he kept his opponent at bay walking away with a bronze medal.

On Friday, Punia had faced a crushing defeat in the semifinals at the hands of Haji Aliyev of Azerbaijan. Aliyev defeated Bajrang 12-5 as the former dominated proceedings from the word go.