Tokyo Olympics / Injury can be healed later, medal had to be won now: Bajrang on playing with knee injury

Tokyo: Bajrang Punia stated that no one gets more disappointed than an athlete after losing a game. The Indian wrestler bagged bronze through repechage in the men's freestyle 65kg category.

Bajrang defeated Kazakhstan's Daulet Niyazbekov on Saturday by 8-0 in the bronze medal match. In the match between Punia and Niyazbekov, the former went on to take 2-0 lead in the first period and all the pressure was on the Kazakh opponent heading into the last three minutes.

In the final three minutes, Bajrang managed to hold his own and he kept his opponent at bay walking away with a bronze medal.

"I am not satisfied with bronze. I couldn't give the nation the medal they expected," Bajrang told reporters in a virtual press conference on Sunday. "Doctors advised me to get rest due to my right knee but I wanted to train so that I can play for India at the Olympics," he added.

Talking about undertaking rehab in Russia, Bajrang said: "Rehab I did in Russia. Because coming back to India and then going to Tokyo would have a risk [COVID-19], that's why I avoided and did rehab in Russia with my team."

"I don't think no one is more disappointed than an athlete," he said when asked about semi-final loss.

Earlier on Friday, the Indian grappler faced a crushing defeat in the semifinals of the Tokyo Olympics at the hands of Haji Aliyev of Azerbaijan by 12-5 as the latter dominated proceedings from the word go.

On skipping Poland Open and playing a local tournament in Russia where he got an injury, Bajrang said, "Injury can happen anywhere even in training. This is a very injury-prone sport."

"My father saw me on TV and he got to know then that I was injured. I didn't want to tell them but they are parents so they know everything."

Indian grappler also said that he will now work for future tournaments and will improve on his weaknesses. "I will work with my coach on my weakness and will try to work on my movements and will give my best in the coming tournaments."

Throwing light on the injury he suffered while playing a local tournament in Russia which hampered the aggressive movements of Bajrang on the mat due to injury while playing in Olympics, he said: "We didn't have any time. I did training for weight loss and didn't run for one month and also wasn't able to get training on the mat. That's why my movement was affected at the Games. And for the last bout, I just went for bronze because after that I can rest."