Tokyo: India’s Bajrang Punia entered the semi-final of men’s free-style 65kg wrestling event at the ongoing Tokyo Olympics after beating Iran’s Morteza Ghiasi by fall in the quarter-finals, here on Friday.
With the win, Punia guaranteed a medal match for himself at Tokyo. Even if he loses in the semis, he will compete in the bronze medal match.
The Indian grappler will now face Azerbaijan’s Haji Aliyev in the semis at the Makuhari Messe Hall.
Aliyev defeated Daulet Niyazkebov of Kazakhstan to enter the final four.
Earlier, Bajrang marking his Olympic debut survived a close shave and defeated Ernazar Akmataliev of Kyrgyzstan in the round of 16 to enter the quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, another Indian wrestler Seema Bisla bowed out of Tokyo Olympics following her 3-1 opening-round loss to Sarra Hamdi of Tunisia in the women’s 50kg weight class.
Hamdi later lost her quarter-final bout to the world champion Mariya Stadnik of Azerbaijan, which ended Seema Bisla’s hopes of re-entry into the competition via repechage.
Notably, the repechage rule in wrestling allows grapplers who have lost early in the competition a second chance, should their victor make it to the final.
The 28-year-old Seema Bisla had won a bronze medal at the Asian championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan and sealed her place for Tokyo 2020 with a win at the world Olympic qualifiers in Sofia, Bulgaria.