Rebooted and recovered, Deepak Punia eyes Commonwealth Games and Asian Games

Fighting with a strapped right knee, Deepak Punia thought his best shot at an Olympic bronze was to defend the 2-0 lead against Myles Amine of San Marino.

It was a crucial error in judgment and left Amine, a world championships semi-finalist, close to five minutes to overturn the deficit in this 86kg bout. Amine ended the first period with a push which made it 1-2.

Punia hung on tenaciously in the second, skillfully defending his legs from Amine’s grasp. But with 30 seconds left, Amine clutched Punia’s injured leg.

Hopping on his left leg, Punia tried to extricate himself but Amine dragged him in from the edge of the circle and completed the takedown with 10 seconds left on the clock to win his country’s third medal and first from the mat in Tokyo. And Punia stood in disbelief at Makuhari Messe Hall.

On his return, Punia went to Mumbai to seek medical opinion and was advised rehab on his injured knee.

“I was very disappointed. I was so close to winning an Olympics medal. But it was my first Olympics and what I lacked was experience. I will work on my game and improve,” said Punia.

“I was doing rehab for a couple of months. The knee was troubling me for some time and it aggravated during a camp in Russia before the Tokyo Olympics.

So, my first task was to recover completely. I am back to full training and have started mat sessions too. Once you are back in training, it helps you forget the past and focus on the season ahead with positive energy.”

Punia and Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Ravi Dahiya were scheduled to go to Russia for training but had to cancel after the latest worldwide surge in Covid-19 cases. Punia is now training with his coach Virender Kumar.

“The Russia plan could not be worked out. I will be training here and would hope to begin my season with the Asian Championships in April.

There are a few ranking events also lined up. The main focus, however, will remain, the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games this year. Next year, again it will be Olympic qualifiers again,” he said.

Punia is a gold and silver winner at the world junior championships. In 2019, the year he won gold in the world juniors, Punia also bagged a senior world championship silver and qualified for the Olympics.

In Tokyo, 22-year-old Punia defeated Nigerian Ekerekeme Agiomor by technical superiority (12-1) and China’s Lin Zushen 6-3 in the quarter-finals. He lost the semi-final bout to eventual gold medallist David Taylor of USA and fought the repechage for a bronze.

The break has help Punia reboot, said his coach Virender. “He realises the mistakes he did in Tokyo. He is very positive and keen to improve.”

“It was a bronze medal bout and he felt the pressure. You can’t defend for so long and he is at his best when he attacks.

He could have been thinking that he might end up conceding points if he attacked. He was also thinking of his injured knee that it should not aggravate. So, a lot of things were going through his mind. It was simply not destined,” said Kumar.