Bajrang Punia claims hosts' first gold

New Delhi: Bajrang Punia ended the hosts’ wait for gold, defeating Seung chul Lee of Korea 6-2 in the men’s 65kg freestyle final on the fourth and penultimate day of the Asian Wrestling Championship here on Saturday.

Sarita Devi, meanwhile, settled for silver in the women’s 58kg category.

In his gold medal bout, the 23-year-old Bajrang conceded two points in the opening half before making a strong comeback in the second to lead 3-2. From there, he displayed an attacking game and never let his rival come back into the contest.

Bajrang added three more points to his credit to wrap up the bout in style.

Earlier, Bajrang edged past North Korea’s Kukgwang Kim 3-2 in the semi-final and got the better of last edition’s Asian Championship gold medallist Meisam Nassiri of Iran 7-5 in the quarters after beating Uzbek wrestler Sirojiddin Hasanov 4-3 in the qualification round.

However, gold eluded Indian women wrestlers even as this was their best ever performance at the Asian meet with six medals, including four silver and two bronze. In 2003, India bagged five medals that included two silver and three bronze. Sarita lost 0-6 to Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyzstan in the final.

In the men’s 97kg category, Satywart Kadian, went down in his repechage bout to lose out on a place in the bronze medal play-offs. He was beaten by Batzul Ulziisaikhan of Mongolia 5-8.

Olympian Sandeep Tomar suffered a knee injury to bow out early in the men’s 57kg.