Don't feel pressured by expectations of gold medal at Tokyo Olympics — Bajrang Punia

India's ace wrestler Bajrang Punia is confident that he will bring glory to the country at the biggest stage of world sports - The Olympics and he doesn't feel pressurised by the expectations people have on him. In a conversation with The Bridge, at the sidelines of an event held to announce an association between JSW Group's Inspire Institute of Sport and Herbalife Nutrition.

"I don't feel any pressure about people resting their hopes on me of winning a gold medal at the Olympics. I have been able to keep up to my reputation. People expect a lot from me, and I won't let them down. I will give my best to win the gold medal." said the wrestler.

Bajrang Punia is confident that he will bring glory to the country at Olympics (Image: UWW)

Bajrang is already qualified for the Olympics after he won the bronze medal last year at the World Wrestling Championships. The 65kg category at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 will be one of the toughest categories with stiff competition. Russian powerhouse Rashidov Gadzhimurad, the 2019 World Championships gold medalist and Daulet Niyazbekov, the 2019 World Wrestling Championships silver medalist will be the two wrestlers to watch out for apart from Bajrang.

Bajrang Punia is World No.2 in the 65kg category, he says his focus will be on improving his rankings. India will be pinning hopes for a gold medal at Tokyo Olympics, from Bajrang, who received criticism after a loss to Japan's Takuto Otoguro at the recently concluded Asian Wrestling Championships in New Delhi and had to settle for a silver medal. He had also failed to defeat Otoguro in the 2018 World Championship title clash too.

"It's not like I have faced a dip in my form. I have won the gold medal at Rome Ranking Series, which was followed by a silver in the Asian Wrestling Championships. I am confident I will be in my peak to win the gold medal at the Olympics. All you need is one good day to make everything perfect." said Bajrang.

Bajrang Punia is World No.2 in the 65kg category, he says his focus will be on improving his rankings. (Image: UWW)

Despite the coronavirus outbreak, Tokyo 2020 authorities have been steadfast in their belief that the Olympics will go ahead as scheduled. It is with this certainty that Bajrang plans to train, he also looks forward to take part in the Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov, the Ranking Series in Poland in June, and the Canada Cup. The decision to participate in these will be taken depending upon the need for the situation.

The 26-year-old said he was working on his ‘shortcoming’. “I used to give away points due to (poor) leg defence. I will play two to three tournaments to prepare for the Olympics. I am working on both attack and defence. Olympics- 2020 is our focus, so I am working on all the areas. Often it happened, that I have trailed at one point of the bout and just to overcome that I had to give out on points. I will definitely work more on that."

The Jhajjar-born wrestler is also happy about the fact that India has shown so much promise off late with youngsters rising to the occasion, which makes him believe that India will have a praise-worthy medal tally in wrestling in Tokyo.

"It's a good thing to see the likes of Ravi Dahiya (Gold in Asian Championship) and Deepak Punia (Silver in World Championship) have risen to the occasion and make our country proud. I am very hopeful of our country having a good medal tally in wrestling at the Olympics this year."