The Indian Freestyle Wrestler Bajrang Punia was up against Kazakh wrestler Daulet Niyazbekov, in the semi-finals of the World Wrestling Championships. Bajrang Punia is considered to be the only hope for India in Wrestling, in which India have been underperforming, mostly at the Worlds and the Olympics. On Thursday fighting in the semi-finals after acquiring the Tokyo berth, Daulet won the bout for 9-9 in an intense contest which eventually raised a lot of controversies.
After a fierce competition between the two, the controversy came in several instances from when the referee awarded ample time to the tired Daulet Niyazbekov to let him regain some energy, or often let him cut a slack with his violent approach not giving him warning, to be precise, for 3 times. On the contrary, the home wrestler, Niyazbekov was awarded 4 points, when Bajrang had an exceptional throw at the edge of the circle.
Bajrang’s coach Shako Banitidis was severely disheartened by the decision, and his frustrations were pretty clear in his actions outside the boxing ring. He even went on to challenge the decision but with no positive result as such. Punia’s exit, resulted in India’s last edition silver medalist getting knocked out, for India will now be contesting for Bronze.
Thursday turned out to be even bitter for the Indian side, as the underdog of Indian wrestling, 20-years old Ravi Dahiya who have been a surprise at the tournament advancing in each bout, and also secured an Olympic berth lost on his way to the semi-finals of World Championships under 57kg category against Zaur Uguev from Russia.
Dahiya have not been a likely option for the Indian side, but after participating in the tournaments he turned all odds in his favor, as he beat Arsen Harutunyan from Armenia and world number three Yuki Takahashi of Japan to advance for the Tokyo Olympic Bronze contest. On a brighter note, India now have 2 contestants from wrestling to compete in 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.
