India's Bajrang Punia will return from Tokyo with a bronze medal on Olympic debut after outwitting Daulet Niyazbekov in the play-off in Tokyo on Saturday. He did not live up to the sky-high expectations but will nevertheless return with a medal. If his defence let him down in the semifinal against Hazi Aliev, Bajrang's smart attacking moves made him a 8-0 winner against Kazakhstan's Niyazbekov, to whom he had lost in the semifinals of the 2019 World Championship.
With Bajrang's medal, Indian wrestlers have matched their best performance at the Olympic Games. At the 2012 London Games, Sushil Kumar won a silver and Yogeshwar Dutt returned with a bronze. With his podium, India also equalled their best ever Olympic medal haul of six achieved in in the 2012 London edition.
Bajrang had defeated Kyrgyzstan's Ernazar Akmataliev and Iran's Morteza Cheka Ghiasi before losing to Hazai Aliev from Azerbaijan in the semifinals on Friday. Earlier, Bajrang’s perennial leg-defence weakness came to haunt him at the big stage as he lost the men's freestyle 65kg semifinal to three-time world champion Haji Aliev. Rio Olympics bronze-winner Aliev of Azerbaijan consistently attacked Bajrang's legs and twice got himself into position from where he could roll the Indian comfortably for easy two-point throws.
Bajrang began the day on Friday by edging past Kyrgyzstan's Ernazar Akmataliev and then pinned Iran's Morteza Cheka Ghiasi to reach the semifinals. Bajrang trailed the Iranian for a major part of the bout after being severely crippled by Ghiasi's defensive tactics, especially the body-locks. However, since Bajrang had the high scoring move, a two-pointer take down, he was declared winner on criteria. It was not the most clean and fluent victories that he is known for, but was just enough for Bajrang, who came into the Games after suffering a minor knee injury during a local Russian tournament.