What’s the story?
Indian wrestlers’ golden run at international competitions continued at the 2017 Asian Championships with Bajrang Punia staging a comeback to win a gold medal in the 65kg freestyle category. Punia was fighting against South Korean Seungchul Lee and trailed 2-0 at the break but showed enough character to fight back and win by a 6-2 margin.
Punia played a smart attacking game post the break and speaking to the press after his victory said, “My strength is my stamina and I played accordingly. I was told by my coaches and mentor to attack more and I followed the strategies well to come out as a winner.”
In case you didn’t know...
The 2017 edition of the Asian Wrestling Championship is being held at the Indira Gandhi stadium in New Delhi. The Championships started on the 10th of May and will go on until the 14th of May.
Indian wrestlers are having a successful championship season with Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik, Sarita and Divya winning a silver medal each.
The heart of the matter
Punia not only kept his cool after going 2-0 down but also grew into the game in the second half to eventually win by the 6-2 margin. The gold medal is Punia’s first in a major international tournament and he stated that he is happy with his achievement.
The 23-year-old is being mentored by Olympic medal winner Yogeshwar Dutt.
What’s next?
Punia will have his eyes set on the World Championships, which will be held in Paris from August 21.
Author’s Take
Indian wrestlers have been making the country proud ever since KD Jadhav became the first Indian to win an individual Olympic medal at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952.
Sushil Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt and co then made the country proud at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics and the tradition carried on with Sakshi Malik winning a medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
We hope this newly acquired winning habit continues to yield dividends and our wrestlers keep making the country proud on the world stage in the years to come.
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