Tokyo: India's last medal hope in wrestling Bajrang Punia defeated Morteza Cheka Ghiasi of Iran in men's free-style 65kg quarterfinal bout here at the Tokyo Olympics. A bout which he was trailing turned as Punia "pinned" his opposition down.
Bajrang enters semi-finals with this win.
The first technical point was scored by Morteza in the first period. Despite Bajrang being aggressive, Morteza was able to handle him well and the round ended with him leading the period.
A Gold medal favourite, Bajrang in the second period did well as the bout went neck and neck but later on he got better of him to earn the place in the semi-finals.
True to his style, Bajrang Punia put his tactical acumen and strength to good use to pin Iran's Morteza Cheka Ghiasi to enter the last four.
Bajrang trailed the Iranian for a major part of the bout after being severely crippled by Ghiasi's defensive tactics, especially the body-locks.
Twice Bajrang was put on activity clock and also left to defend his right leg when Ghiasi got hold of it.
As the second period moved towards the final minute, Ghiasi looked like making a dangerous move when he got hold of Bajrang's right leg and almost pulled off a take down.
But Bajrang not only wriggled out of that clutch, he locked the neck of Ghiasi and moved into a position from where he turned his rival, pushed him on the mat and held him with his immense strength to emerge victorious by fall.
He will now fight it out with Azerbaijan's Haji Aliev for a place in the gold medal bout. Aliev is three-time world champion and bronze-winner from the Rio Games.
Earlier, Punia moved to quarterfinals after just about managing to go past Kyrgyzstan's Ernazar Akmataliev in his opening bout.
A timely take-down move just before the end of the first period put the Indian ahead 3-1 but Akmataliev ran Bajrang close in the second period, getting two push-out points to level the scores.
Since Bajrang had the high scoring move, a two-pointer take down, he was declared winner on criteria.
It was not the most clean and fluent victories that he is known for, but was just enough for Bajrang, who came into the Games after suffering a minor knee injury during a local Russian tournament.
