Asian Wrestling C'ships: Bajrang Punia wins gold, Praveen settles for silver

Xi'an, Apr 23: World No 1 Bajrang Punia won India's first gold medal in the men’s 65 kg category, while Praveen Rana settled for silver medal in Xi’an, China at the Asian Wrestling Championships 2019 on Tuesday.

Bajrang defeated Sayatbek Okassov of Kazakhstan 12-7 to bag the medal.

After the wrestler was trailing 2-5 at the end of the first period but soon he made a comeback to win the bout and the gold medal, the first for India at this tournament.

Okassov maintained a 5-2 lead at the break. Punia suffered another takedown soon after the break and was trailing 2-7.

Later, he attacked on Okassov and took two points to bring down the deficit to 4-7. The tired Kazak wrestler failed to defend the next attack from Punia, who took a 12-7 lead, which remained the final score.

Meanwhile, Praveen Rana settled for silver medal after losing the final of 79 kg category 0-3 to Iranian wrestler Bahman Mohammad Teymouri, while Satyavrat Kadian, participating in the 97kg category, finished his campaign with a bronze medal.

Earlier, Punia defeated Uzbekistan's Sirojiddin Khasanov 12-1 in the semifinals to make it to the gold medal bout of 65kg, while Rana made it to the final in 79kg category after a 3-2 win over Kazakhstan's Galymzhan Usserbayev.

While in the 57kg weight division, Ravi Kumar entered the bronze medal play-off round after winning his repechage against Chia Tso Liu of Taipei 4-0. Ravi will face Yuki Takahashi of Japan.

In 97kg category, Satywart Kadian reached the bronze medal round.