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Tokyo Olympics:  Wrestler Bajrang Punia now in quarterfinals

IndiaTokyo Olympics:  Wrestler Bajrang Punia now in quarterfinals

Tokyo Olympics, wrestler Bajrang Punia now through to the quarterfinals, where he won his first bout against Ernazar Akmataliev of Kyrgyzstan.

He won this in the men’s Freestyle 65kg 1/8 final and will take on Morteza Ghiasi of Iran in the quarterfinals.  Wrestler Seema Bisla lost to Sarra Hamdi of Tunisia 1-3 in women’s 50kg freestyle 1/8 final.

Bajrang Punia (born 26 February 1994) is a freestyle wrestler from India. He competes in 65 kg weight category. He is the only Indian wrestler to win 3 medals at the World Wrestling Championships.

Punia was born in a Jat family in Khudan village of Jhajjar district in the state of Haryana, India. He began wrestling at the age of seven and was encouraged to pursue the sport by his father.  Punia grew up in rural India, a deprived part of the country. His family did not have money for traditional sports. Instead, he had to partake in free sports like wrestling and Kabaddi.

Punia’s father was a wrestler as well and at a young age, his family helped him to join a local mud wrestling school. Punia started to skip school to go to wrestling practice. In 2015, his family moved to Sonepat so that he could attend a regional center of the Sports Authority of India.

Currently, he works in Indian Railways on the post of Gazetted officer OSD Sports. Punia likes seeking out the knowledge and wisdom of his village elders.

In 2020, Punia qualified India for The Olympics in freestyle wrestling. Due to COVID-19, the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics were postponed. Punia said that having to train for another year isn’t like a postponed exam and instead invested his time in starting his training all over.

 

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