India wrestler and Tokyo Olympic medal hopeful Bajrang Punia has acknowledged the tough task ahead of him and said he is taking no chances in the build-up to the Olympic games coming up in July.

The sensational wrestler who lost to Takuto Otoguro of Japan in the 65kg category of the Asian Championships held in Delhi, India revealed that he failed to give his all against his opponent as that lost was his second straight defeat after winning the silver medal in the 2018 Asian Championships held in Budapest.

Bajrang said in an exclusive interview that he has two favors on his mind, which deterred him from giving his best. The first, which he revealed that the bout was happening on his home ground where he has a lot of support and secondly was that he lost in the previous final.

” I was diagnosed with typhoid a few days before the tournament, and I was confused about which incident affected me the more; the lost at home, typhoid, or the pressure at home.”

Taking a performance review at his performance in Delhi, Punia said he was excited to have improved his leg defense as he acknowledged that he concedes easy points in the first period and always struggle to fight back to win his bouts. He has, however, said he is happy to have worked on that and hopes to avoid such occurring in his future games.

Written by:  Olumide Akinnifesi