India’s Bajrang Punia and Vinod Kumar (70kg freestyle) came up with strong performances to reach the 65 kg freestyle and 70kg freestyle finals respectively in the first World u-23 wrestling championship in Poland on Sunday.
Punia lived up to his favourite tag by beating Iran’s Yones Aliakbar Emamichoghaei 9-4 on points in the semi-final.
The Iranian wrestler was the first to get off the blocks as he bagged the first two pints but the Indian managed to claw back to end tied on 4 points after the first round.
Punia dominated the second round completed to pick five straight points to reach the final and will face Nachyn Sergeevitch Kuular of Russia.
In the 70kg freestyle semifinal, both Vinod Kumar and his Japanese opponent Nobuyoshi Takojima hardly tried to earn points and the bout was ultimately decided on passive play penalties.
While Vinod Kumar was the first to get the penalty in the opening round, Takojima was guilty of the same in the second round twice and was penalised a point each time to help the Indian win 2-1 on points.
Vinod Kumar will now face USA’s Richard Anthony Lewis, who defeated Kazakhstan’s Zulfikar Makhamatov 7-2 on points.
In the 97 kg category, Viky went down to China’s Chaoqiang Yang 5-3 in the quarterfinals.