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Bajrang Punia made a stunning comeback in the last few minutes of his gold medal bout against Tulga Tumur Ochir to retain his 65kg title at the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series event in Rome on Sunday.
The Matteo Pellicone wrestling event was Indian’s first competitive international outing in a year, since the 2020 Asian Championships in Delhi. While Bajrang shone, Rohit Kumar lost to Tumur Ochir 0-4 in the semifinals in the same weight category.
Bajrang Punia had been in impressive form in this event right from the start. He beat Turkish Selim Kozan 7-0 in the quarterfinals before getting the better of American Joseph McKenna 6-3 in the semifinals. The 27-year-old didn’t start the final the way he would have wanted to as he trailed Tulga Tumur Ochir 0-2 initially.
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However, the star Indian grappler stormed back in the final 30 seconds to level 2-2. He won the encounter on criteria, winning his second straight gold medal at the Matteo Pellicone event.
It was also India's second gold medal in this edition of the tournament after Vinesh Phogat won the top prize, defeating Diana Mary Helen Weicker of Canada in women's 53kg.
ALSO READ: Tokyo Olympics-qualified Vinesh Phogat wins gold at Ukraine wrestling event
Vishal Kaliramana clinches bronze in Matteo Pellicone event
In the 70kg non-Olympic category, India’s Vishal Kaliramana won a bronze after he pummeled Kazakh Syrbaz Talgat 5-1.
Vishal had earlier defeated Canada’s Dillon Williams 4-1 before going down 3-6 to Syrbaz Talgat. He then lost to American Alec Pantaleo in the semifinals by technical superiority before winning his bronze-medal bout.
In the 74kg category, Narsingh Yadav missed out on a bronze medal after he lost 0-5 to two-time Asian champion Daniyar Kaisanov. Sandeep Singh Mann had a poor start on his international debut in the same category, losing 4-11 to World Championship silver medallist Franklin Gomez of Puerto Rico in the qualifiers.
In the 79kg category, Rahul Rathi could not proceed to the knockouts despite getting the better of Salvatore Diana of Italy in his final round. The Indian had earlier lost his opening two bouts against Muhammet Nuri Kotanoglu and Ramazan Ishak Sari.
ALSO READ: India's Greco-Roman wrestlers win 3 bronze medals at Matteo Pellicone event
In the 86kg category, Parveen Chahar went down fighting against Canada’s Clayton Pye 6-7 in the quarterfinals.
The story was similar for Parveen in the 92kg. He succumbed to Rio 2016 Olympic silver medallist Selim Yasar of Turkey by technical superiority before losing to Turkey’s Erhan Yaylaci in a similar fashion. He then suffered a close 5-6 defeat to Kazakh Elkhan Assadov. In his last match, USA’s Pat Downey gave up midway due to injury.
Although the Matteo Pellicone tournament is not a qualifier for Tokyo Olympics, the performances of the wrestlers will determine their world rankings.
