Bajrang Punia is the Asian champion at 65kg but did not win medal at World Championships. (Source: PTI)
Two years in and India will be returning from the World Wrestling Championships empty handed. Last year in Budapest at the Worlds for non-Olympic weight category, India were blanked. This year, a team which consisted of an Olymic bronze medallist, former Worlds bronze medallist and Asian champion alongwith with some of the names that are tipped to be the future of wrestling in the country, India met with same result.
Asia champion at 65kg Bajrang Punia, one of India’s biggest medal hopes, returned empty handed after losing in the repechage to Mustafa Kaya of Turkey. He had earlier lost to Georgia’s Zurabi Iakobishvili of Georgia 5-6 in the quarter-finals.
But India, once again, did not start the day on a bad note. Punia began with an impressive win. Praveen Rana at 74kg won his qualification bout and Satyawart Kadian at 97kg pinned his Chinese opponent.
Like on all other days of the Championships in Paris, India implode going into the quarter-finals. Amit Dhankar got Kazakhstan’s Akzhurek Tanatarov in his first round bout and lost 2-9. Then began the series of losses.
Rana went down to 0-5 to Jabrayil Hasanov of Azerbaijan and Kadian was blanked 0-5 by Armenia’s Georgii Ketoyev. There was no fight from the two. Their amateurish moves weren’t troubling the far superior wrestlers.
Still, India hoped for a medal for 2013 World bronze medallist Punia. He even raised the hopes when he up leading against Iakobishvili in the bout. With 20 seconds to go in the bout and his opponent tiring, Punia trailed 5-6. Instead of going for the kill, Punia tried some wayward attacks that did not materialise. He failed to pick up a point and lost.
He got the golden opportunity to wrestle in repechage but he wasted that as well losing 8-3 to Kaya and bow out. This meant had no medals on the final day of the Championships as well.
Not only the blank at Worlds was shameful for India, the fact that they could not go past quarters in any weight or styles is more astonishing.
