Freestyle wrestler Bajrang gave India the first gold medal of the Pune Mayor’s Trophy International Invitational Wrestling competition by beating Mongolia’s Batchuluun Batmagnai 6-4 in the Men’s 65-kg category final.
The competition was held at the Late Rajaram Bhiku Pathare Primary School’s Vithoba Maruti Pathare Indoor Stadium. Coming into the final after beating Tilek Sharsheev of Kyrgyzstan in the semifinal and Andre Svyryd of Ukraine in the first round, Bajrang was confident enough to take on the Mongolian as he won 6-4 to a rousing welcome from the crowd.

In the other two weight categories that were finished, Indian wrestlers settled for silver medals — Nitin losing to Kyrgyzstan’s Ulukbek Zholdoshbekov 7-1 in the final and Jitender losing 4-7 to Iran’s Bahman Teymouri in the 74-kg class. Jitender had beaten Kyrgyzstan’s Ilgiz Ozhakypbekov in the semifinals and Oleksiy Shcherbak of Ukraine in the first round.

In the 57-kg class, Nitin was completely outpointed by Ulukbek Zholdoshbekov of Kyrgyzstan 7-1. Nitin had, however, made it to the final, beating fellow Indian Bharat Patil in the semifinals and Tajikistan’s Hikmatullo Vohidov in the first round