Deepak Punia loses bronze medal match in men's 86kg freestyle wrestling at Tokyo Olympics

Tokyo Olympics: The Indian coach challenged the decision but there was no way back for Punia as the decision went in favour of Amine and there was no time left to play.

India's Deepak Punia came within seconds of winning a bronze medal in the 86kg category of men's freestyle wrestling, but eventually lost to Myles Amine of San Marino. Punia, who was trying to defend a slender one-point lead in the second period was eventually beaten as Amine pulled sensational move in the dying second to go up 3-2.

Wrestler Deepak Punia of India in action at the Tokyo Olympics (REUTERS)

The Indian coach challenged the decision but there was no way back for Punia as the decision went in favour of Amine and there was no time left to play.

Punia, a junior world champion and a silver medallist in the 2019 World Championships, was coming off a one-sided loss in the semi-final to USA's David Morris Taylor.

Punia scored the first points of the bout as he held the San Marino wrestler from the back to go up 2-0. Amine tried a good move at the two-minute mark in the first period but Deepak defended well but still gave away a single point. Deepak led 2-1 at the break.

The Indian wrestler looked tired in the second period and hardly made any moves to secure points. His strategy to defend almost worked out but Amine tried hard to snatch points and eventually succeeded.

Earlier, Deepak made the most of an easy draw by getting past Nigeria's Ekerekeme Agiomor, the African championship bronze medallist by technical superiority and then prevailed 6-3 against China's Zushen Lin in the quarterfinal.