Bajrang Punia came up short in his final bout at the Budapest World Championships and had to be content with a silver medal in the 65kg weight category.
After becoming only the fourth Indian wrestler to reach the final of World Championships, Bajrang could not respond to the attacks of 19-year-old Takuto Otoguro of Japan and lost 9-16 in the final on Monday.
Despite his loss, Bajrang became the first Indian wrestler to win two medals at the senior world championships as he had won a bronze medal at the 2013 worlds in the same city.
“It was so near and yet so far,” Punia said after the final.
He added: “Having reached the final, I expected to win gold but I will have to be satisfied with a silver medal. I am happy to have bettered my bronze medal effort, achieved five years ago at the same venue”.
Sushil Kumar remains the only Indian wrestler to win a gold medal at the World Championships, a feat he achieved at the Moscow Worlds in 2010.
In a fast-paced bout, Bajrang and Otoguro exchanged attacks in the first half and the score was 7-6 in favour of Otoguro after the first period. But the Japanese wrestler came back strongly in the second period and launched some quick attacks that got him the important points.
Bajrang did pull off some of his moves but Otoguro’s defence and counter-attacking ability proved to be a bit too much.
Otoguro was out of breath during the second period and was visibly tired but held on to his lead to win the gold medal.