Bajrang Punia won gold in the men’s 65 kg category in the freestyle wrestling event at the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games after his opponent Daichi Takatani of Japan forfeited the tie.
In the women’s 69 kg category, Navjot Kaur won bronze after she defeated Solmaz Bozaganowa of Turkmenistan by fall. Sheetal Tomar also won bronze in the 48 kg category after defeating Eka Arfenda of Indonesia.
Bajrang had easy outing on the way to the golf. He began with an easy 12-1 win over Jarvissadam Tarkong of Palau in the opening round. He later trumped Farzad Amouzadkhalili of Iran by a 31-8 margin. In the semi-finals he was again in impervious form as he beat Tajikistan’s Abdulqosim Fayziev 21-1. Fortune favoured him in the final as his Japanese opponent forfeited the contest.
Navjot had begun confidentally as well. He registered easy wins over Desi Sinta of Indonesia (21-0) and Mamajan Sayyewa of Turkmenistan (10-0). She, however, faltered against Feng Zhou of China in the semi-final. The Chinese won 11-0. In the rechage bronze medal clash, Navjot regained her confidence to emerge victorious.
Tomar had beaten Rupinder Kaur of Australia 11-0 in her opening bout, but then lost 8-2 to China’s Yanan Sun in the quarter-finals. She, however, made most of her opportunity in repechage and registered win over Grace Loberanes of Phillipines before beating Arfenda in the bronze medal contest.
India’s other medal of the day came in Chess with Sasikiran Krishnan winning the bronze in men’s standard individual event.
With 24 medals overall (6 gold, 7 silver, 11 bronze) India are now 12th on the medal table for the event.
