Punia's mentor and London Olympics bronze-winner Yogeshwar Dutt says his disciple is upset with his silver show at Worlds
Bajrang Punia and Yogeshwar Dutt
Even as India's wrestling fraternity celebrated Bajrang Punia's historic second World Championship medal, in Budapest on Monday, the man himself was not too pleased with his effort, says his mentor and London Olympics bronze medal-winning grappler Yogeshwar Dutt. "Bajrang is in such good form that he was disappointed at losing the gold medal yesterday. He told me that he was not very happy with his performance in the final," Dutt told mid-day yesterday, a day after reigning Asian Games gold medal-winner Punia lost to Japan's teenage grappler Takuto Otoguro (19 years) in the 65kg final in Budapest, Romania by a 9-16 scoreline.
Dutt defended his favourite chela (disciple) : "The Japanese kid is quite new on the circuit, so Bajrang didn't know much about him, while on the other hand, he [Takuto] would have thoroughly studied all of Bajrang's previous videos. Bajrang, 24, has been in sparkling form on the mat this year. He won gold medals at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, the Tbilisi Grand Prix in Georgia and the Yasar Dogu event in Istanbul, Turkey. He also won gold medals at the Asian Championships in New Delhi and the Asian Indoor & Martial Arts Games in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan — both last year. On Monday, Bajrang became the first Indian wrestler to win a second medal at the World Championships, following up on his 2013 bronze.
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However, the Haryanvi grappler tends to struggle whenever an opponent attacks his legs. At the Jakarta Asian Games earlier this year, Bajrang won a close gold medal bout against another Japanese grappler, Takatani Daichi, 11-8, where he lost quite a few points to a shaky leg defence. On Monday too, Takuto went for Bajrang's legs and succeeded in getting points.
Dutt admitted the legs are Bajrang's weakness. "Every wrestler has his strengths and weaknesses and Bajrang must strengthen his leg defence. He has enough time to do that as the qualifying tournaments for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are next year, and once he qualifies, he then has a good one year to work towards achieving his ultimate dream — an Olympic medal," said Dutt.
So is an Olympic medal from Bajrang a given? "I have no doubt that he will return from Tokyo with a medal round his neck. But I don't want to predict the colour," said Dutt.
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