After winning Rome gold, Bajrang says was bit rusty

Rome, January 19

Bajrang Punia was far from his best but still claimed the gold, while Ravi Kumar Dahiya showed sparkling form in his gold winning effort as the two Indians kicked off the Olympics year in style at the Rome Ranking Series here.

The 25-year-old Punia staged a comeback to secure a 4-3 win against USA’s Jordan Michael Oliver in the final of the 65kg freestyle category on Saturday.

Ravi, who competed in the 61kg category instead of his regular 57kg, bagged the gold after toppling Kazakhstan’s Nurbolat Abdualiyev 12-2.

India, thus, returned with seven medals from the tournament. Vinesh Phogat and Anhsu Malik won a gold and a silver, respectively, in the women’s competition. In Greco-Roman, Gurpreet Singh (82kg) won gold, Sunil Kumar (97kg) silver, while Sajan Bhanwal (77kg) settled for a bronze.

‘Missed coach’

Punia admitted that he was not at his best. “The bouts were close, it’s just the first tournament of the season so I was a bit rusty. I had a feeling going into this that the performance will be a bit wobbly,” Punia said. “But having close bouts is not a worry, it’s good. It keeps me alert.”

Punia’s personal coach Shako Bentinidis was not with him in Rome and that too affected the wrestler. “He had some visa issues, so he could not be with me. His absence also impacted my performance. I badly missed his guidance during the bouts,” Punia said.

Others lose

However, it was curtains for Jitender (74kg) and Deepak Punia (86kg). Jitender lost in the quarterfinals against Turkey’s Soner Demirtas.

Jitender got a change to fight in the repechage round after Demirtas entered the final, but the Indian losing 2-9 to Kazakhstan’s Daniyar Kaisanov. Deepak crashed out in the opening round, losing 1-11 to Ethan Adrian Ramos of Puerto Rico.

Satyawart Kadiyan (97kg) and Sumit Malik (125kg) also failed to reach the medal rounds. — PTI