Wrestler Bajrang Punia loses semi-final, to play for bronze at Olympics tomorrow

Tokyo: India’s Bajrang Punia’s winning run at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics came to a halt in the semi-final when he was defeated by Rio Olympic Bronze medallist Haji Aliyev of Azerbaijan in the Men’s 65kg event.

Bajrang will now face Gadzhimurad Rashidov from Russia on 7 August for the Bronze medal.

Both wrestlers started off patiently and it was Aliyev was the one who was put on a 30-second clock for passivity.

The Azerbaijani wrestler though managed to turn the bout around in that round itself, upping the ante and picking 4 points to storm into a 4-1 lead.

Bajrang tried to defend his out of the lock but was unable to get around his opponent.

Aliyev started off the second round strongly too quickly pining Bajrang a couple of times to extend the lead to 8-1.

The Indian though raised some hopes of a comeback after that when he got the better off his opponent to reduce the lead to 3 points with a little less than two minutes on the clock.

From then on in though, Aliyev not only managed the bout well but picked up crucial points while defending to take the bout eventually.

Bajrang protested the last play but lost the challenge and conceded the contest on points by a score of 12-5.

Aliyev will not face Japan's Takuto Otoguro in the final.