World number one Bajrang Punia logged 10 points in a row in the gold medal bout to reclaim his Asian Wrestling Championship crown. He defeated Kazakhstan's Sayatbek Okassov 12-7 in a nail-biting 65 kg men's freestyle final, in Xi’an, China, on Tuesday.
The Commonwealth and Asian Games champion was trailing 2-7 with just 60 seconds to go for the final bell but the unperturbed Indian produced three gut-wrench moves and an exposure move to take eight points after he began the attack with a two-point take down.
The Kazkah was visibly tired while Bajrang showed immense stamina and guile under pressure to emerge triumphant.
It is Bajrang's second gold at the championships, having won one in 2017. Overall, it is the fifth medal for the Indian in the tournament.
With this performance, Bajrang yet again sounded a warning to his opponents that he will be a strong medal contender at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
On the way to the final, he conceded just one point. He defeated Uzbekistan's Sirojiddin Khasanov 12-1 in the semi-finals before winning by technical superiority against Charles Fern of Sri Lanka. He beat Peyman Biabani of Iran 6-0.
Another Indian in gold medal contention is Parveen Rana, who entered the final in the 79kg category after a 3-2 victory over Kazakhstan's Galymzhan Usserbayev.
He will face Bahman Mohammad Teymouri of Iran in the gold medal bout.
Rana defeated Yuta Abe of Japan and Mongolia's Tugs Erdene Denzensharav.
In the 57kg weight division, Ravi Kumar entered the bronze medal play-off round after winning his repechage against Chia Tso Liu of Taipei 4-0.
Ravi is up against Yuki Takahashi of Japan.
Satywart Kadian, too, reached the bronze medal round in the 97kg category. He lost to Batzul Ulziisaikhan in his quarter-final bout but went on to make the cut after his Mongolian opponent reached the final.
Meanwhile, Rajneesh bowed out of the tournament early in the 70kg category.