Bajrang Punia’s perennial leg-defence weakness came to haunt him at the big stage as he lost the men’s freestyle 65kg semifinal to three-time world champion Haji Aliyev here on Friday and he will now fight for Bronze medal at the Olympic Games.
Rio Olympics Bronze-winner Aliyev of Azerbaijan consistently attacked Bajrang’s legs and twice got himself into position from where he could roll the Indian comfortably for easy two-point throws.
Trailing 1-4 after the first period, Bajrang looked for a big attack but Aliyev very smartly effected a counter take down, placing his shoulder close to the thighs of Bajrang and threw the Indian for a huge 8-1 lead.
The Azerbaijani was losing steam and Bajrang got two take-downs to reduce the deficit but the required big move never came. Under 30 seconds left in the bout, Bajrang desperately looked for an attack but Aliyev did not let him do that by gripping him in strong body-lock.
A dejected and helpless Bajrang fell on the mat, aware that he had lost battle to a superior wrestler.
Bajrang will now fight for Bronze. If he manages to win, India will match its best result at the Olympics. Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt had won a Silver and a Bronze at the 2012 London Games.
Ravi Dahiya on Thursday had won a Silver in the 57kg.
Bajrang began the day by edging past Kyrgyzstan’s Ernazar Akmataliev and then pinned Iran’s Morteza Cheka Ghiasi to reach the semifinals.
Elsewhere, debutant Indian wrestler Seema Bisla could not find a way to get out of the defensive trap of Tunisia’s Sarra Hamdi and lost her 50kg opening round 1-3.
The 27-year-old could not make her moves as Hamdi applied the body lock to great effect, never allowing Seema to initiate a strong attack.
The Tunisian later lost her next bout, which drew curtains on Seema’s campaign.