Bajrang Punia World Championship 2022 - Win Four medals In the World Championships
Bajrang Punia, from Haryana, India, is a freestyle wrestler competing in the 65 kg category. He is the only Indian wrestler to have won 4 consecutive medals at World Wrestling Championships. Punia started wrestling when he was only 7 and grew up taking wrestling practices in the local mud wrestling school in his village. Later, he was sent by his family to Chattarsal Stadium in the year 2008. Ramphal Mann trained him for quite a few years. In the year 2015, when he, along with his family, moved to Sonepat, he started attending the regional centre of the Sports Authority of India. Bajrang Punia also works as a Gazetted Officer OSD Sports in the Indian Railways.
Bajrang Punia bagged 3 bronze medals in 2013, 2019, and 2022, along with a silver medal in 2018. The historic win in the 4 World Championships made Punia a household name. Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the help of Twitter to congratulate Bajrang Punia and wrestler Vinesh Phogat on their win. World Wrestling Championships were held from 10th to 18th September 2022 in Belgrade, Serbia. These championships are organized by the United World Wrestling under the head of Amateur Wrestling World Championships. Bajrang Punia also made his country proud by winning a bronze medal at the Tokyo 2020. He participated in the men’s freestyle 65 kg, and he beat Kazakhstan’s Niyazbekov by a total of 8-0 points. Thereafter, Bajrang Punia, who lost previously to Haji Aliyev of Azerbaijan during the semifinals, also returned with a wonderful spirit and defeated several counterattacks.
In Punia’s recent win at the World Championships on 18 September, he bagged the prize with a bandage around his head due to an injury. He did a major fightback immediately after Puerto Rico’s Sebastian Rivera put him down by a total of 6-0 in the previous bout. The 28-year-old wrestler won the match in the last round, and the final few seconds made a major breakthrough by winning the bout 10-9. This particular win in the year 2018 was Punia’s fourth medal at the World Championships. Vinesh Phogat, after Punia, also secured her bronze in the second World Championship, in the category of women’s 53kg.
With 4 medals, he is the most successful wrestler champion in India. Previously he also won a round on repechage in the under-23 world championships. When he won the gold in the 2018 and 2022 editions, the 5-4 win over the bronze medallist Alejandro Valdes of Cuba in a two-time world champion. Bajrang Punia lost to the champion of Pan America, John Diakomihalis of the USA, in the quarterfinals of the match. In 2022 world championships. India also headed a powerful 30-member contingent that also involved men as well as women in freestyle competitions in the Greco-Roman wrestling style. The famous Indian wrestler won several national as well as international tournaments and made the country proud by winning 4 medals in the World Championships against strong opponents in 65 kg freestyle wrestling.
