Bajrang Punia, Ravi Kumar claim gold medals in Rome

India’s two most iconic wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Ravi Kumar Dahiya kicked off the Olympic year in style as they won a gold medal each in their respective weight categories at the Rome Ranking Series.

Bajrang clinched a remarkable comeback to secure a 4-3 win against USA’s Jordan Michael Oliver in the summit showdown of the 65kg freestyle category while Ravi competed in the 61kg category instead of his regular 57kg.

Ravi also bagged gold after getting the better of Kazakhstan’s Nurbolat Abdualiyev 12-2 in his final bout late on Saturday night. The 23-year old wrestler from Sonepat had made the final round after securing impressive wins over Moldova’s Alexandru Chirtoaca and Kazakhstan’s Nurislam Sanayev. Meanwhile, the American appreciated the competitive spirit of Bajrang and congratulated him.

“Wasnt my night… but I got a lot of work to do to be where I want to be! Hats off to @BajrangPunia dude is a heck of a competitor! Until next time my friend,” he tweeted.

However, Bajrang had to sweat it out in the first round of the game against Zain Allen Retherford of the USA before prevailing 5-4. In the quarterfinal, the ace Indian wrestler went past another American Joseph Christopher Mc Kenna 4-2, before getting the better of Vasyl Shuptar of Ukraine 6-4 in the semi-finals of the tournament.

On the other hand,  it was curtains for Jitender in the 74kg and world championship silver medallist Deepak Punia in the 86kg category. Jitender won his first bout against Denys Pavlov of Ukraine 10-1 before going down in the quarterfinals against Turkey’s Soner Demirtas 4-0. He got a chance to fight in the repechage after Demirtas entered the final, but the Indian wasted the opportunity, losing 2-9 to Daniyar Kaisanov of Kazakhstan.

Deepak crashed out in the opening round in the 86kg category after losing  1-11 to Ethan Adrian Ramos of Puerto Rico.

आप सभी को हाथ जोडकर राम राम आपका प्यार व आशिर्वाद ऐसे ही बना रहे….आप सबका दिल की गहराइयों से धन्यवाद. ?? जय हिन्द जय भारत ??

https://twitter.com/BajrangPunia/status/1218797175062351872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw