Indian wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya retained his Asian Championship title with a solid performance and Bajrang Punia won for a silver medal after withdrawing from the much-awaited final against Takuto Otoguro due to an elbow injury, Almaty on Saturday.
Bajrang told PTI that he did not want to aggravate the condition of his right elbow. He said he started feeling the pain during the quarterfinal against Korean Yongseok Jeong.
“When I was pulling the Korean, the pain in my right elbow resurfaced. It’s the same elbow that I had injured during the World Championship. The coaches advised that I must not take risk so close to the Olympics, so I withdrew,” Bajrang said.
Bajrang did not look his usual self but did not face much competition en route the final. He had no difficulty in getting past Jeong, who hardly attacked in his opening 65kg bout.
His first scoring point was a take-down on counter and earned one more for the passivity of his rival.
Next for him was Mongolia’s…