Vinesh and Bajrang should win medals at Olympics: WFI President

Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) revelled in the gold medal-winning performances of Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia and put the onus on them to repeat their performances at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Speaking to ANI, Singh said, "Wrestling is a sport that is traditional in India, and since the last eight to ten years, the expectations that people have from Indian wrestlers have also increased. Bajrang and Vinesh have made the nation proud by winning gold medals."

"Their victories were not a fluke; they won by a good margin, which proves that they had prepared well. Since Sushil Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt and Sakshi Malik, there was a big change in Indian wrestling. Now, we can say that if these two do not win medals at the Olympics, the nation will be disappointed," he added.

Meanwhile, reflecting on her gold medal-winning performance, which saw her become the first Indian woman to win a gold medal at the Asian games, Vinesh Phogat said, "I wanted to give my best and win the gold medal. The entire nation was with me and my hard work paid off."

"I believed in myself that I could do this. People are with me and if they continue to be, it'll be good in Tokyo (Olympics 2020) too," Phogat added.

The 23-year-old swatted away her Japanese opponent Yuki Irie 6-2 to give India their second gold of the tournament.

On Sunday, Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia clinched the first gold medal for the country after seeing off Japanese Daichi Takatani 11-8 in Men's 65kg freestyle event.

India's total medal tally stands at five with two golds, two silvers and one bronze.