The last decade saw the rise of wrestling in India, thanks to Sushil Kumar. His medal-winning performances at the 2008 and ’12 Olympics had set the stage for the next-gen — the target to emulate the great Sushil Kumar at the Olympics. Every kid who donned the langot (wrestling shorts) and took to mud wrestling in India looked up to Sushil as an inspiration. One such wrestler was Bajrang Punia. Fast forward to 2020, Sushil is now the thing of the past, while Bajrang is the torch-bearer for the current Indian wrestling crop.
His emergence to the top began in 2018 after winning his first gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in 2018. Four months, later the 26-year-old went on to become champion at the Asian Games. Since then, he has been an unstoppable ‘Indian Tank’ – as he is called by fellow-wrestlers for his strength and endurance. In a span of two years, he has won two Asian Championship medals, one world championship medal and a place for India at the Tokyo Olympic Summer Games.
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Bajrang is India’s biggest hope for a medal in Men’s wrestling at the Tokyo Games next year. He is currently world no.2 in the 65kg weight class and has a very good opportunity to go to the Olympics as the top seed. It will help him avoid the tough opponents such as Rashidov Gadhzimurad of Russia and Daulet Niyazbekov from Kazakhstan. But it the Japanese enigma that is Takuto Otoguro which has been a nightmare for the Indian wrestler.
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Otoguro and Bajrang met on the wrestling mat for the first time in 2018 World Championship in Budapest. In a high-scoring final, the Japanese got the better of his Indian counter-part defeating him 16-9.
The second time the two met was in the New Delhi-held Asian championship in 2020. It was a rematch of the 2018 Worlds. Both the wrestlers had romped their respective opponents in the early rounds to march into the final. In the much-anticipated match, Bajrang, as expected, was the home favourite. But the Otoguro puzzle proved too much to his liking.
Bajrang has often been called out for his weak leg defence and it was a flaw which was heavily exploited by Otoguro in the final. The Japanese wrestler from the start of the match had taken a lower stance to attack the legs. It was like a tiger lowering himself and ready to pounce on its prey whenever the opportunity strikes. Otoguro’s continuous counter-attacks to impeccable defence helped him overcome the Indian wrestler 10-2 in the finals.
But now with a year to go, Bajrang believes that he will be ready for any challenge what come may. He has been working on his leg defence, and his coach Shako Bentinidis believes, this is just the start. By the time the Olympic arrives, Bajrang would be a romping machine ready to climb at the top of the podium.
