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2018 Wrestling World Championships: Bajrang Punia goes down in gold hunt

Indian loses to technically superior Japanese teen in final, returns with second Worlds medal

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India’s Bajrang Punia (Blue) in action against Japan’s Takuto Otoguro in Men’s Freestyle 65kg final of Wrestling World Championships in Budapest on Monday
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Japanese Takuto Otoguro showed his technical superiority to floor India's star wrestler Bajrang Punia 16-9 in the 65kg freestyle final at the 2018 Wrestling World Championships in Budapest on Monday.

In India's 30-member squad, Punia was the lone hope for the gold, and the 24-year-old was hoping to emulate Sushil Kumar's gold-winning effort in the 2010 Worlds.

But as the bout started, Punia conceded early points to lose the initiative to his much younger Japanese contender.

After taking an early point, the 19-year-old Otoguro jumped to 5-0 lead in no time by pushing Bajrang out of the mat. The pressure of conceding early points was clearly showing on the Haryana wrestler's face.

However, he maintained his cool and took a couple of points back-to-back in small intervals to bounce back to 4-5. Bajrang kept up the pressure in search of the lead but his Japanese counterpart was quick in the counter attacks and stretched the lead to three points.

Punia, somehow, closed the gap to 6-7 before the only break in the championship bout.

The turning point of the game came soon after the resumption as Punia got caught in his own attempt, giving away four vital points to Otoguro. The Japanese pinned Indian on the mat with a seemingly tight front headlock to take a decisive lead.

Punia was furious at Otoguro's delaying tactics as his opponent took at least two injury time-outs. A frustrated Indian grappler played the catch-up game thereafter but never really came close to lose 9-16 to his much superior opponent.

This is Punia's second medal at World Championships after a bronze in 2013, which was also in Budapest.

The Haryana grappler, groomed by London Olympic bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt, has had a great 2018 so far, winning the Commonwealth Games gold in Gold Coast and as well as the Asian Games gold in Jakarta.

He has also hired the professional coaching services of Georgia's Shako Bentinidis, who was in Punia's corner during the final bout on Monday.

India' lone World Championships gold, thus, remains with Sushil, who bagged it in Moscow in 2010.

Punia became the second Indian after double Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar to reach the World Championships final beating Cuban Alejandro Valdes Tobier 4-3 in an intriguing semifinals bout.

DID YOU KNOW?

Sushil Kumar remains the lone Indian to have won a gold medal at the World Championships, achieving the feat in the 2010 edition in Moscow in the 66kg category

OTHER RESULTS

In other results, both Pankaj Rana in 70kg and Mausam Khatri in 97kg bowed out without much to show.  Rana went down 0-10 to Ikhtivor Navruzov of Uzbekistan in the second round while winning the first round against Jarvissadam Blesam Tarkong of Palau (10-0) by technical fall. However, Khatri lost in the first round to Jose Daniel Dias Robertti of Venezuela 2-12. In women’s freestyle event, Seema lost her second round bout 0-10 to Davaachimeg Erkhembayar of Mongolia by fall after receiving first round bye in 55 kg category. Sarita managed to win two rounds before losing to Shoovdor Baatarjay of Mongolia.

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