Bajrang Punia: Tokyo Olympics: Patient Bajrang Punia reaps reward | Tokyo Olympics News – Times of India

Throughout the four-year Olympic cycle beginning Rio 2016, Bajrang Punia, the 27-year-old from Haryana’s Jhajjar, has been among the medals at every multi-sport event and international competitions, including gold at the CWG and Asian Games in 2018.
The hallmark of Bajrang’s game is his tactical brilliance, speed and stamina. He can quickly read his opponent’s moves and change his game-plan according to the match situation. For Tokyo, he even worked on two glaring weaknesses in his game which, according to Bajrang, had often led to his downfall in crunch situations. He had a habit of starting off slowly, offering his opponents crucial time to ratchet up points. Also, his susceptibility to leg attacks were exploited by rivals. Unfortunately, an injury to his right knee just over a month ago in Russia somewhat derailed his journey for a gold medal finish in Tokyo. Still, Bajrang did well in a decorated field of world-class wrestlers to finish with a bronze.

Bajrang had waited for this opportunity since Rio 2016. He was all prepped up for the Games but made way for his guruji (mentor) Yogeshwar Dutt, the London 2012 bronze medallist (men’s 61kg), to go for one last hurrah. Bajrang allowed his senior pro to go and secure an Olympic quota for India in the men’s 65kg freestyle event from the Asian Olympic qualification tournament in Astana. Yogeshwar obliged and booked his berth for the Rio Games. Bajrang didn’t cross paths with guruji and it was his way of repaying the faith. He knew that his time would come. In fact, in 2016, Yogeshwar had hailed Bajrang as his rightful successor in the 65kg category.
Bajrang was captivated by wrestling at a young age of seven, when he would flunk classes to attend dangals (mud wrestling) in the local akharas of Khudan village. It helped that his father, Balwan Singh, was also a grappler and held considerable sway in Jhajjar’s wrestling circuits. Seeing his child’s love for the sport, Balwan enrolled him at a wrestling academy in the early 2000s. Bajrang, who would compete in men’s freestyle 60kg in his initial days, announced his arrival on the big stage after winning bronze at the Asian and World Championships in 2013. The following year, he brought silver medals from the Asian, CWG and Asian Games, competing in the 61kg category.
Bajrang secured medals in all major international events, but his big-ticket moment came in 2018 when he won four medals in 2018, including the CWG and Asiad gold. After qualifying for Tokyo in 2019 following his bronze-winning effort at the Worlds in Nur-Sultan, Bajrang kept his tryst with Olympic glory with a podium finish on Saturday