Bajrang Punia wins bronze at World Wrestling Championships 2022

The Tokyo Olympics medalist has won his fourth medal at the global meet.

Bajrang Punia wins a thriller of a match beating Sebastian Riveria of Puerto Rico 10-9 in the bronze medal bout at the World Wrestling Championships. It was not an easy win for Bajrang considering the injury he sustained in the qualification round. Also, this is Bajrang's fourth medal at the World Championships winning bronze in (2013, 2019, and 2022) and a silver in 2018.

With this win, India has won two bronze medals, the other from Vinesh Phogat at the 2022 World Championships.

Riveria had a slight advantage as he was fresh coming into the match having played all his matches the previous day losing in the semi-finals. As expected Riveria started to attack Bajrang from the start taking a six-point lead. Punia's defence was very poor unable to defend losing crucial points. He lost a total of six points in 40 sec which can be due to fighting vigorously in his previous bout and losing some good energy.

When everything looked done and dusted Bajrang using all his experience came back firmly rolling down Riveria twice for four points. This allowed Punia to gain momentum and scored another two points going forward in the first round. Inside 2 mins and 7 sec, the scores were tied at six points. At this point many expected this to be a high-scoring encounter with four minutes left in the match.

At the end of the first round, Riveria was leading by two points (8-6). Riveria again started scoring points early in the second half gaining a three-point lead putting more pressure on Bajrang. Similarly, the Indian with all his experience claimed four points to finish the match 10-9 and win the bronze medal. Bajrang Punia would have lost the match had Riveria's challenge been successful at the end of the match.