Asian Wrestling Day 5: Bajrang disappoints, loses 2-10 to Otoguro

In the fourth gold medal bout on the fifth day of Senior Asian Wrestling Championships 2020, Bajrang Punia failed to get past Japanese Takuto OTOGURO. Bajrang bowed down convincingly to the Japanese by 2-10.

Punia failed to avenge his defeat of the finals of 2018 world championships against Otoguro.

Earlier in the quarterfinals, Bajrang got the better of Abbos Rakhmonov of Uzbekistan by 12-2.

Bajrang despite all the hype failed to live up to the expectations of the home crowd and disappoints the Indian fans in the stands.

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Now after the loss in the Asian Championships, he will be looking to the Olympics and preparing well in order to try and win a medal in the Games.

Other medal bouts for the Indians:

In the first gold medal match of the evening session, India’s Satywart Kadian went against Iranian Mojtaba Mohammadshafie Goleij in the 97kg category.

He lost to the Iranian in a one-sided match with a scoreline of 0-10. In the end, he will have to satisfy with only a silver.

Kadian is the Asian 2019 bronze medallist and defeated Rustam Iskandari of Tajikistan earlier today in mere 45 seconds to make it to the gold medal match for the first time in his career. Goleij is 2 times Under 23 World champion and was recently announced as UWW U23 Wrestler of the year 2019.

Although Kadian lost the match today he bettered the colour of his medal from last year – silver from bronze.

In an absolute thriller, Gourav Baliyan misses on gold against Kyrgyz wrestler Arsalan BUDAZHAPOV. Baliyan fought hard but could only manage silver in the end.

Budazhapov defeated Baliyan by 7-5 in a game that swung either way at all times.

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Baliyan won a thriller of the semi-finals against Shinkichi Okui of Japan. Playing his first Senior Asian Championships, Baliyan was down at the starting of the first half by 0-3 but the young Indian maintained his focus and won the bout by 6-5.

In the 70kg category, Naveen could not stop Ashirov in making it two bronze in two years. Ashirov defeated Naveen by 12-1 and won second bronze in two consecutive years.

Earlier in the day, Naveen beat Taejin JEON of Korea in the Quarterfinals by 5-5 on a technical basis. However, he was beaten by Iranian Amirhossein Ali HOSSEINI by 2-3 in the semifinals.

Last and final game of day 5 of Senior Asian Wrestling Championships saw India’s hope Ravi Kumar Dahiya win gold against Hikmatullo VOHIDOV from Tajikistan in the 57kg freestyle category. Ravi defeated the Tajik by a scoreline of 10-0 in what was an amazing display of wrestling by the Indian.

In semifinals, Ravi prevailed over Nurislam SANAYEV of Kazakhstan to make it to the Gold medal match of the Asian Championships. Dahiya won the battle of champions in a very convincing manner to oust triple world medallist Sanayev by 7-2 margin.

Dahiya lived up to the expectation as he started the match as favourites.

Earlier in the morning session 23-year-old Dahiya showed great skills to first oust 2017 world champion Yuki Takahashi of Japan by 14-5 in the opening round and then defeated Mongolian Tugs BATJARGAL in the quarterfinal bout. The Indian champ won the bout by pinning down his opponent as he was leading 6-3.

Medal Fights for all 5 Indians @ 6 PM today LIVE on WrestlingTV

97kg – Satywart KADIAN (IND) lost to. Mojtaba Mohammadshafie GOLEIJ (IRI) 0-10

79kg – Baliyan GOURAV (IND) lost to. Arsalan BUDAZHAPOV (KGZ) 5-7

70kg – Meirzhan ASHIROV (KAZ) def. Naveen NAVEEN (IND) 12-1

65kg – Takuto OTOGURO (JPN) def. Bajrang BAJRANG (IND) 10-2

57kg – Hikmatullo VOHIDOV (TJK) lost to. Kumar RAVI (IND) 0-10

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