Bajrang Punia wins gold at Rome Ranking Series

After Vinesh Phogat grabbed the 53kg gold medal along with the World Number one rank, Bajrang Punia won the gold in the men's 65kg event at the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series.

Bajrang Punia won the gold medal at the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series. (File Photo)

Bajrang Punia won the gold medal in the final of the men's 65kg event at the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series in Rome on Sunday. 

Bajrang defeated Mongolia's Tulga Tumur Ochir 2-2 by criteria in the final of the freestyle event. The 27-year-old grappler secured a hard-fought win over the Mongolia wrestler.

 

This was Bajrang's second consecutive gold medal at the ranking series after he had won the yellow metal last year after defeating Jordan Oliver of the USA. 

The road to the final was an easy passage for Bajran as in the quarterfinal, he defeated Turkey's Selim Kozran with a 7-0 margin and in the semifinal, the Haryana wrestler secured a 6-3 win over Joseph Christopher of the USA.

With this win, Bajrang is now on top of the ranking table in the 65kg category with 14 points.

Vishal Kaliramana too impressed in the non-Olympic 70kg category by winning a bronze with a 5-1 win over Syrbaz Talgat from Kazakhstan.

Meanwhile, Narsingh Yadav, who recently made a return to competitive wrestling after a four-year doping ban, lost his bronze play-off 0-5 to Kazakhstan's Daniyar Kaisanov.

Greco Roman wrestlers - Neeraj (63kg), Kuldeep Malik (72kg), Naveen (130kg) - bagged three bronze medals.

Earlier, ace Indian wrestler, Vinesh Phogat grabbed the 53kg gold medal along with the World Number one rank.

 

It was a second gold medal for Vinesh in as many weeks as the 26-year-old World bronze medallist blanked Canada's Diana Mary Helen Weicker 4-0 in the title clash.

Vinesh scored all her points in the first period and held on to her lead in the second to ensure a top-of-the-podium finish.   

The Indian had entered the event as world number three but is back to the top spot on the rankings by jumping 14 points. The Canadian was ranked as low as 40 before the tournament but is now just behind Vinesh at number two.

Vinesh did not concede a single point in the tournament winning two of her three bouts by pinning her rivals while getting injury walkouts in the other two in the eight-woman field. Sarita Mor had won a silver in the 57kg.

 

Inputs from PTI