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Bajrang Punia bags a silver medal at the Asian Championship
In the final of the Asian Championship in 65kg category in wrestling, renowned athlete Bajrang Punia succumbed to a defeat but won a silver medal for India.
The star wrestler was seen to be holding off on attacks, being a bit too conservative, which is very unlike himself.
He was beaten by Iranian Rahmad Mousa Amouzadkhalili, a former junior world champion.
Bajrang Punia, who won a bronze medal for India at the Tokyo Olympics 2020, was fairly easily defeated in the final.
This is a warning sign, given much is expected from him at the Paris Olympics, in 2 years’ time.
There was a lack of attacking threat by Punia in the final, which may be because of the injuries he’s suffered recently.
Bajrang Punia skipped 2 international tournaments between now and the Tokyo Olympics, as he was in rehab for a knee injury he had suffered.
Even though he was injured at the Olympics, he showed great courage to fight for a place on the podium. This earned him a well deserved medal.
But since then, he has struggled to get back to full fitness. Even during the selection, he struggled. He claimed he had injured his left knee, in January.
As a result, he was only narrowly able to beat Rohit Singh in the final selections.
He said ““I was recovering from a knee injury and doing my own rehab with no doctor or physio. I had their services till the Olympics. After that, I requested… but no one was made available… I have not been able to train continuously because of the injuries. Had there been a physio, I would have been fit by now and played in the ranking series,” after the selection trials.
This is an alarming revelation, by Bajrang Punia, a proven Olympic, Asian and a World Champion.
The wrestling Federation of India (WFI) and Sports Authority of India(SAI) played the blame game, and accused the Railways of not releasing Dr Anand Kumar.
Bajrang Punia has requested the services of Dr Kumar, on November 22nd, 2021.
WFI then blamed Punia for not choosing to avail the services of the 2 physios from the National camp.
WFI has always been against their wrestlers from having a personal trainer but, Bajrang feels he would’ve been in much better condition, had he had the services of one.
Bajrang Punia is one of the fittest athletes India has, and to see him struggle like this means there’s some mismanagement going on at the top.
If India are to get the best out of Punia, something needs to be changed, helping the athletes recover as soon as possible.
Fellow wrestlers Ravi Dahiya(57kg) won his third consecutive gold medal at the Asian Championship, whereas Gourav Baliyan, won us a silver.
All 3 of them would be targeting a top of the podium finish, at the Asian games, which will commence from September 10, 2022 in Hangzhou, China.