Deepak Punia was seconds away from winning the bronze medal, but Myles Amine's last-ditch takedown earned him a 4-2 win.
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Deepak Punia was defeated in the men’s freestyle 86kg bronze-medal match of the ongoing Tokyo Olympics against Myles Amine by a 2-4 margin. Myles, who wrestled for the University of Michigan, won the first Olympic wrestling medal in the history of San Marino. Deepak was leading by 2-1 with ten seconds left in the encounter. However, Myles pulled off a takedown with the last action of the bout to end the Indian wrestler’s hopes.
India’s medal tally in Tokyo currently stands at 5 after Ravi Kumar settled for silver against the Russian Olympic Committee’s (ROC) Zavur Uguev in the final of the men’s 57kg freestyle event. The 23-year-old wrestler was always chasing Uguev as he ended up losing the bout 4-7. Ravi is only the second Indian to win a silver medal in wrestling, following Sushil Kumar, who won the same medal at the 2012 London Olympics. The Indian wrestler and Mirabai Chanu are the only athletes from the nation to have won a silver medal in Tokyo.
Deepak was earlier 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. 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 resulted 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.
Interestingly, the US-based athlete went on to win the Gold medal in the last few seconds of the final, pulling off a 4-3 triumph.
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.
India’s hopes of increasing their medals tally have taken a major hit as wrestler Vinesh Phogat crashed out of the women’s freestyle 53kg event in the 1/4 final stage. Phogat was beaten by Vanesa Kaladzinskaya of Belarus and it was a pretty comprehensive defeat. The Indian wrestler would have gotten another chance in repechage if the Belarusian wrestler made it to the final. However, she was defeated in the semi-final by China’s Pang Quiyan.
