Different Bajrang
It was a different Punia to the one that showed up in the semi-final barely 24 hours ago, outclassed by Azerbaijan’s Haji Aliyev 12-5 in a largely onesided battle.
This was a lot like the Punia we’ve known in recent years; a lot like the Punia who entered the Olympics as the world No.1 and looked every bit like one in the months leading up to it while winning gold in the Rome Ranking Series and silver at the Asian championships; this was a lot like the Punia that was primed for glory at the Games as the only Indian wrestler to have delivered three medals at world championships.
“I am not happy. This is not the result I had set out to achieve. Winning an Olympic medal is no mean achievement but I can’t jump with joy with bronze,” Punia was quoted as saying by PTI.
The bronze bout was a potentially tricky one for the Indian. Niyazbekov is a two-time worlds medal winner.
The second was a silver in the 2019 edition in Nur-sultan, where he defeated Punia in a high-tempered, high-scoring, close and controversial semi-final contest. On Saturday, however, there was no controversy on who the dominant wrestler was.
If Punia erred on the side of caution in the semi-final against Aliev, he switched to attack mode against Niyazbekov. After a couple of minutes of sussing each other out, with Punia looking to find openings, he got his first point on account of the Kazakh’s passivity. Niyazbekov then had Punia in a headlock, but he got out of it neatly. With 20 seconds on the clock for the first three minutes, Punia went for Niyazbekov’s legs, and moments later pushed, him out of the yellow zone with a clever change of direction to earn another point.
After the break, Punia continued to target the right leg of the Kazakh, who was defending well.
But Punia was orchestrating all the attacks; Niyazbekov was busy thwarting them. At some point, the floodgates had to open. And they did.