Indian Wrestler Bjarang Punia bounces back at number one with win at Matteo Pellicone

Indian Wrestler Bjarang Punia is one of the strongest medal hopes for India at the Olympics and the wrestler is leaving not even a single day missed when it comes to his training and preparations. It is the result of his continuous preparations of his tactical game that he has won the Matteo Pellicone at Rome, which not only means a validation for his training but also that he has bounced back to number one. 

The decisive knock came during the last 30-seconds where the wrestler went all out to pull a two pointer to win a gold medal bout defending his title at the Matteo Pellicone ranking series. He was up against Mongolia’s Tulga Tumur Ochir and Punia was trailing behind with 0-2 and it was in the final moments, that the wrestler came up to level score. 

Now even though the two wrestlers had the same scores but since the last point came from  India’s side, Punia was declared the winner. As per experts and the commentators, Punia has improved a lot and previously known for his agility, he depended more on his leg power through the tournament. 

Ahead of the event, he was ranked second in the world as he was also seeded second for the event in 65kg but now leads the chart with 14 points. The fresh rankings are the result of this tournament alone. 

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Apart from Punia, Vishal Kaliramana too was impressed with his bronze in the non-Olympic 70 Kg category. He had to settle for bronze but he won against Syrbaz Talgat by 5-1. Another Indian wrestler Narsingh Pancham Yadav also made a comeback to compettevtove wrestling after a four year doping ban. 

The wrestler was definitely disappointed with the loss against Kazakhastan’s Saniyar Kaisanov but coaches were definitely impressed with his power and his temperament. 

India came back with a total of seven medals in the first ranking series event since last year where Olympic medalist Vinesh Phogat and Sarita Mor also won gold and silver respectively.