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Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia bagged his second title in two weeks after defeating Viktor Rassadin in the finals of men’s 65kg freestyle in the Ali Aliyev wrestling tournament in Kaspiysk on Thursday. The grappler is ranked No. 1 in the World Wrestling rankings in the 65kg category.
At the initial stage of the clash against Viktor Rassadin, Bajrang was down 0-5 but soon surpassed his opponent and set the score to 13-8.
The two met last in 2017 at the Dan Kolov. Punia had won and finished as runner-up to Boris Novachkov of Bulgaria there.
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Last week, Bajrang won a gold medal at the Asian Championships in Xi’an, China. Adding to this achievement, he clinched a gold again at Ali Aliyev Wrestling in the current week.
Bajrang Punia is a freestyle wrestler from India born in Khudan village of Jhajjar district in the state of Haryana.
He began wrestling at the age of seven and later his father encouraged him to pursue it as a career.
He has a list of medals on his plate, mostly gold since 2013 wrestling tournaments.
Last year, at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, Punia won the gold medal in the men’s freestyle 65 kg category against Kane Charig of Wales.
The 25-year-old won a Silver at World Wrestling Championships. It was after this Silver Medal that he was promoted to the World No. 1 spot in the 65kg category.
This year, on March 11, Bajrang was honoured with the Padma Shri Award. Bajrang took to social media to share his joy upon receiving the award and thanked his parents, coaches, friends, and well-wishers for always supporting him.
