India's second seed Deepak Punia lost 0-10 by technical superiority to USA's David Morris Taylor III, missing out on advancing to the gold medal match.
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Deepak Punia was defeated in the men’s freestyle 86kg semi-final bout against former World Champion David Taylor by a 0-10 margin. It was almost like Deepak was fighting against an opponent from a higher weight category. The Indian failed to register a single point. However, he is still in contention for a bronze medal with the bout scheduled for tomorrow. The semi-final encounter lasted less than the first period of three minutes.
David, who is an athlete from the US started on a strong note, with the Indian focusing on his defence. However, the same resulting in a passivity warning against Deepak, making him adopt an unconventional and rash attitude. David took full advantage of this shift and lack of comfort, bringing all his experience to the fore in a fine triumph. Deepak who has been hailed by one and all for being fearless, will take the positives from the defeat and look to move on.
Fellow wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya has confirmed another silver medal for India after weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, following a triumph against Nurislam Sanayev of Kazakhstan. Sanayev was bloodied in his previous round, recording a triumph in an absolutely bizarre bout. Ravi was the seeded wrestler going into this encounter and was high on confidence having won both bouts on technical superiority.
However, the spirit was not visible early on as Ravi maintained a cautious approach early on. This resulted in Sanayev taking the first point after the passivity clock ran out against India.
Ravi made a fine comeback at this stage, earning a two-pointer without losing his patience when the passivity ran out. This lovely change of direction earned a lead for India at the end of the first period. Sanayev certainly seemed to be motivated having been pushed back, pulling off a fantastic move to earn eight points. Ravi barely hung on to avoid a defeat by technical superiority.
The Indian was in deep trouble having conceded eight points and made a strong move, earning a point on the back of a pushout. Sanayev was badly injured during the course of the move, resulting in a time delay which Ravi was certainly not pleased about, with his momentum gone.
With 65 seconds to do, the score read 9-5 favour of the wrestler from Kazakhstan, resulting in many writing the Indian wrestler off. However, Ravi pulled off a stunning comeback against the odds at this scenario, pinning the opponent to pull off a sensational triumph. The Indian wrestler was staring down the barrel at 2-9 down.
However, an injured Sanayev started to struggle immediately, which Ravi pounced upon astutely like a great wrestler, sealing victory by fall. This triumph against the two-time world championship gold medallist will certainly provide a lot of motivation, going into the gold medal match.
Deepak defeated Zushen Lin of China for a place in the Men’s Freestyle semi-finals. Zushen started the match by taking a point against Deepak. He was pushed out of the circle, but the Indian immediately responded by getting 2 points. Punia slammed his opponent face-first on the mat.
The Indian conceded two points as he went down on the mat, and he could have lost many points on account of the countback rule. The match turned into a nail-biter as Punia won more points with a few seconds remaining on the clock. However, that was challenged by the Chinese who ended up losing. With the result, India got another point, and Punia moved on to the Men’s Freestyle Semi-finals.
