The Indian champion Bajrang Punia was rusty, was short of match practice but still was good to win the finals of the Rome Ranking Series. In the finals Bajrang got better of American Jordan Oliver by 4-3 scoreline. The American repeatedly tried exploiting weakness of leg defense of the Indian, he succeeded for a while but in the end World number 3 ranked wrestler somehow prevailed to win his 4th Ranking Series gold.

Earlier the 2019 world bronze medallist had to work hard for his semi-final victory over Vasyl Shuptar of Ukraine. The fluency of Punia’s moves were missing and also missing was his fluent footwork – but still Bajrang held on to his nerves to score 6-4 victory against the Ukrainian. Shuptar had earned massive victory against 2019 world bronze medallist Eshanpoor of Iran in the quarterfinals.

Earlier In his quarterfinal bout Punia achieved another hard earned victory over Joseph McKenna of USA. In a closely fought bout Punia prevailed by 4-2. The 2018 Asian Games gold medallist also registered a tough first round victory against Zain Allen Retherford of USA. 24 year old Retherford gave Bajrang torrid time with his aggressive tactics and was actually leading him at one point of time. In the end, Punia finally managed victory with score reading 5-4 in his favor.

Also Read: Kyle Dake wins gold, American freestyle wrestlers shine in Rome, India finishes 4th overall

Ravi Dhaiya also wins gold medal for India

The fourth day of the Rome Ranking Series started on a bad note for India as 2019 world medallist Deepak Punia crashed out of the tournament in the opening round. But his good mate Ravi Dhaiya brought back smile on the Indian faces as he won all 3 bouts to win gold medal for India in 61kg category. This was India’s 3rd gold at the 2020 Rome Ranking Series. Before Dhaiya, Vinesh Phogat and Gurpreet won yellow metal for India.

In his 3rd and final bout of the day, World Championship bronze medallist Dhaiya looked extremely strong and superior to his opponent as he defeated Nurbolat Abdulaiyev of Kazakhstan with tremendous ease to seal the gold medal. Dhaiya won the bout 12-2.

Earlier in the second bout, Dhaiya squared off against Nurislam Sanayev of Kazakhstan, who like him won the bronze medal at the 2019 world championships. Like Ravi, Saniyev also decided to move to 61kg category from his regular 57kg. In the interesting match-up Dhaiya looked extremely strong and overpowered the Kazakh wrestler 6-0 to assure himself podium finish.

22 year old Dhaiya started his campaign also with a very convincing victory. In the first round robin match Ravi easily defeated Alexandru Chirtoaca of Moldova 16-4. As only 4 wrestlers had entered in the non-olympic category of 61kg, all wrestlers played against each other in the round-robin format to determine the winner.

Deepak Punia shocked in the first round – Indian wrestling’s big hope and 2019 world silver medallist Deepak Punia shockingly lost in the opening round of the 86kg category. Punia was completely off-color as he was defeated by 2018 Pan American Games runner up Ethan Adrian Ramos of Portugal in completely one sided encounter. The Portuguese wrestler won the bout 11-1. Deepak looked in some discomfort during the bout and was not in his elements which led to easy surrender by Tokyo Olympics bound Indian.

Jitendar loses in quarterfinals of 74kg – The Haryana grappler qualified for the Indian team after winning the WFI trials but winning at global level proved difficult for him as he lost out in the quarterfinals of 74kg. In the tough last 8 match against Rio Olympic medallist Soner Demitras of Turkey Jitendar could not do much and lost 4-0.

Rome Ranking Series – Day 4
61kg – Ravi Dhaiya (Played in Round Robin) Bout 1 Ravi Dhaiya beat Alexandru Chirtoaca (Moldova) 16-4 Bout 2 Ravi Dhaiya beat Nurislam Sanayev (Kazakhstan) 6-0 Bout 3 Ravi Dhaiya beat Nurbolat Abdulaiyev (KAZ) 12-265kg – Bajrang Punia Last 16 – Bajrang Punia beat Zain Allen Retherford (USA) 5-4 Quarters – Bajrang Punia beat Joseph McKenna (USA) 4-2 Semis – Bajrang Punia beat Vasyl Shuptar (Ukraine) 6-4Finals – Bajrang Punia beat Jordan Oliver (USA) 4-374kg – Jitender Last 16 – Jitender beat Denis Pavlov (Ukraine) 10-1 Quarters – Jitender lost to Soner Demirtas (Turkey) 0-486kg – Deepak Punia Last 16 – Deepak Punia lost to Ethan Adrian Ramos (Portugal)	1-11

Wrestling (Kushti) fans can catch Live Streaming, Highlights, News, Videos, Photos, Results and Rankings on WrestlingTV

slide_template: default
rt_custom_css: .scheme_default h3 { font-size: 20px ; } .sidebar_inner{ display:none; } .insert-page-title{ display:none; }
eg_sources_html5_mp4:
eg_sources_html5_ogv:
eg_sources_html5_webm:
eg_sources_youtube:
eg_sources_vimeo:
eg_sources_wistia:
eg_sources_image:
eg_sources_iframe:
eg_sources_soundcloud:
eg_vimeo_ratio: 1
eg_youtube_ratio: 1
eg_wistia_ratio: 1
eg_html5_ratio: 1
eg_soundcloud_ratio: 1
eg_sources_revslider:
eg_sources_essgrid:
eg_featured_grid:
eg_settings_custom_meta_skin:
eg_settings_custom_meta_element:
eg_settings_custom_meta_setting:
eg_settings_custom_meta_style:
eg_custom_meta_216: true
eg_votes_count: 0
tiger_claw_options: a:1:{s:12:"header_style";s:17:"header-custom-655";}
trx_addons_post_views_count: 307
trx_addons_post_likes_count: 0