Indian Wrestler Bajrang Punia, Women Hockey Team Lose In Semis At Tokyo
AS India’s Women’s Hockey team narrowly missed podium finish on Friday, 06 August 2021 fighting bravely, star wrestler Bajrang Punia, 27, freestyle wrestler from India’s Haryana, stormed into the semi-final in 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics and later lost. He had defeated Morteza Ghiasi of Iran to storm into a semi. Bajrang Punia lost to Azerbaijan’s Haji Aliyev 5-12 in Men’s 65kg Freestyle semi-final. Earlier, Ravi Dahiya also from Haryana became the country’s newest wrestling star in Men’s 57 kg Free wrestling bagging silver. Haji Aliev had knocked out the third seed Niyazbekov Daulet earlier. Aliev is a three-time world champion, whereas Niyazbekov has a controversial history with Bajrang. Punia is the only Indian wrestler to win 3 medals at the World Wrestling Championships.
As Chief Coach of the Indian Women’s hockey squad said Sjoerd Marine says ‘’We did not win a medal, but I think we have won something bigger. We have made Indians proud again and we inspired millions of girls that dreams CAN come true as long as you work hard for it and believe it! Thanks for all the support received from Team Modi’’. PM tweets: Indian hockey players reflect the spirit of New India- where we give our best and scale new frontiers. More importantly, their success at Tokyo2020 will motivate young daughters of India to take up Hockey and excel in it. Proud of this team. India loses bronze medal match 3-4 against Great Britain in women’s hockey. The Indians beating all expectations entered the semi-finals of the multi-national games for the first time, and signed off with a fourth-place finish after going down to Great Britain 3-4 in the bronze medal play-off. Finishing 4th in Olympics is no small feat but losing a medal hurts, says India women’s hockey team captain Rani Rampal Goalkeeper Savita was the star of the team in the first quarter saving two penalty corners, and three field goals attempts, drag-flicker Gurjit Kaur came to the party in the second quarter. Great Britain scored two quick goals at the start of the second quarter, but Gurjit allowed India to get back to level pegging. Vandana Katariya added a third goal as India took the lead. Hollie Pearne-Webb scored a goal to level the scores in the third quarter. Grace Balsdon scored from a penalty corner in the fourth quarter. Edited by @chakravartypk. Picture courtesy to AP
