Defending champion Bajrang Punia put up a flop show failing to win a medal, as Indian wrestlers claimed three medals in the Asian Games at Hangzhou China on Friday.

With these three medals, the wrestlers have claimed five medals so far for the country,

Fancied Punia, who had won a gold medal in Jakarta and a silver medal in Incheon, was stunned in the bronze medal match in the 65kg freestyle category by unheralded Japanese wrestler Kaiki Yamaguchi who emerged victorious with technical superiority, overpowering Punia in the second period.

The lack of match practice was evident as Punia struggled to keep up with Yamaguchi’s pace. The Indian had started his campaign strongly with a commanding 10-0 technical superiority win over Tubog Ronil from the Philippines. He then fought hard to defeat Bahrain’s Alibeg Alibegov 4-0 in the quarter-finals.

He faced defeat at the hands of Iran’s Rahman Amouzadkhalili in the semi-finals, with a scoreline of 8-1. The Indian was simply unable to match his opponents’ speed and precision. This is the first time in nine years that Punia returned from the Asian Games without a medal.

However, there were reason for Indian camp to celebrate with the success of three other wrestlers. Sonam Malik earned the bronze medal in the women’s 62kg freestyle category after battling it out against China’s Jia Long and emerging victorious with a score of 7-5.

The 21-year-old Sonam Malik is also a former U20 World Championships silver medalist. She won against Nepal’s Sushila Chand and Mongolia’s Noeurn Soeurn before losing versus Mun Hyongyong in the semi-final at Hangzhou.

Kiran Bishnoi continued her winning streak by adding to her Commonwealth bronze medal, defeating Mongolia’s Ganbat Ariunjargal with a dominant score of 6-3 in the women’s 76kg bronze medal match.

Later Aman Sehrawat outclassed China’s Liu Minghu beat technical superiority 11-0 in the men’s 57kg freestyle to clinch bronze .His bronze takes India’s tally to 93 medals in total .

At the end of the first three minutes, Aman pushed Liu out of bounds and kept trying to get a grip of the Chinese wrestler’s right knee, which was heavily strapped. The second round saw Aman push the Chinese out of the mat once more, before Liu got cautioned. The next four points for Aman came after a takedown, leading to a 11-0 technical superiority.
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Radhika, on the other hand, lost 5-10 to Mongolian grappler Delgermaa Enkhsaikhan, an Asian Championship silver medalist, in the women’s freestyle 68kg quarter-final,