India’s Deepak Punia could not add to the medals tally on Thursday when he lost his Bronze medal match against San Marino’s Myles Amine in the men’s freestyle 86kg at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Deepak held a slender lead but was overpowered in the final 30 odd seconds as the man from San Marino won the country’s third medal. Before the Tokyo Games, they had no Olympic medals and have sent only five athletes to the Tokyo Games.
Amine started off looking to attack the legs of the Indian wrestler, who managed to escape quickly. Deepak not only avoided the attack to his legs but also managed to get a hold and off his opponent to pick up a couple of points.
While Amine halved the deficit by the end of the first round, both wrestlers were watchful, not too keen to give away points, understandably.
Midway through the second round, Amine, who had kept Deepak engaged but at arm’s length, was starting to look the stronger of the two.
With a minute to go, the Indian still held a slender 1-point lead. However, San Marino’s Amine really turned on the heat in the last 30 seconds against a tired Deepak conceded the bout on points.
Earlier in the evening, India’s Ravi Kumar Dahiya lost his final against Zaur Uguev and finished with Silver, taking India’s medal tally to five.
