Chandigarh, August 8

Bajrang Punia, the strongest bet for a gold among Indian male wrestlers in Tokyo, was clearly hampered by a knee injury, as was clear in his first three bouts on Friday, especially in his semifinals loss to Haji Aliev. His coach, Shako Bentinidis, said on Friday that “everything is good” regarding the injury, but he was only trying to put up a brave face.

Bajrang revealed today that the injury was the main reason he could not compete at his best level in Tokyo — and that for the sake of a medal, he risked aggravating the injury. The 27-yer-old had injured his right knee while fighting Abulmazhid Kudiev at the Ali Aliev tournament in Dagestan (Russia) on June 25. He was forced to stay off the mat for over three weeks and this hurt his Olympics preparations. “I could not do mat training for nearly 25 days. I was not able to run as well after the injury. Before a tournament like Olympics even missing one day’s training is not good,” Bajrang said.

He took a risk in the bronze medal bout against Kazakhstan’s Daulet Niyazbekov, going in without strapping his knee. “My coaches and physio wanted me to continue to play with taped knee in the bronze bout,” he said. “But I don’t feel comfortable. It feels like someone has tied my leg, so I told them even if injury happens I can rest later… But if I don’t win medal now all the work will be lost, so I went all out.”

Bajrang was so upset after the loss to Aliev that he could get only little sleep before his bronze medal bout. “I went to sleep but I could not sleep. I hardly slept for three-four hours. I was in a pretty bad mood and did not want to talk to anyone,” he said.

Injury in Russia

“The doctors wanted me to come back to India for treatment (from Russia) but I told them it was not possible. And there was a risk of getting the virus (Covid-19) during travel,” he added. “So I did my rehab in that small Russian village and got all the equipments that I needed with the help of Indian embassy in Moscow.”

“Injuries can happen in training also. And most of the injuries happen during training because in the tournaments you are completely focussed. In training, you do a lot of different things,” he said, explaining why he fought in the Ali Aliev tournament. “I needed to see where I stand in terms of preparations, so I had to compete.”

Bajrang said he would continue to compete in the 65kg category till the Paris Olympics in 2024. “There is no scope to move to 74kg. Next year we have the CWG and the Asian Games. I have missed the gold medal now but will work on my weaknesses and try to get a top-finish in Paris,” he said. — TNS