Bajrang Punia, who entered the Asian Games after escaping the selection trials, suffered embarrassing defeats to make a medal-less exit from Hangzhou even as three other Indian wrestlers, including the talented Aman Sehrawat, won bronze medals here on Friday.
An under-prepared Bajrang, who spent a major part of this year protesting against WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, began with two easy wins but appeared clueless against the formidable Iranian Rahman Amouzadkhalili and Japan's Kaiki Yamaguchi.
Vishal Kaliraman had won the Asian Games trials but the IOA ad-hoc panel, led by Bhupender Singh Bajwa, had handed Bajrang a direct entry, a decision which invited criticism from the wrestling fraternity.
Sending defending champion Bajrang, someone who was terribly short of competition time this year, in the tough men's 65kg competition proved to be a mistake by the Bajwa-led panel.
Even Vinesh Phogat, a leading face of the wrestlers' protest, was spared from the trials but, as luck would have it, she suffered an injury and Antim Pangal got to compete and made an impression by winning a bronze medal in Hangzhou.
Bajrang was routed 1-8 by Iran's Amouzadkhalili in the semifinals after he beat weak opponents in the Philippines' Ronil Tubog (8-1) and Bahrain's Alibeg Alibegov (4-0).
Sonam Malik (65kg) and Kiran (76kg) also lost their respective semifinals in the women's competition to go out of the gold medal race as four of the five Indians in action fell at the last-four stage.
In the men's 57kg competition, Aman moved into the quarterfinals with an easy 6-1 win over Korea's Kim Sunggwon.