Wrestler Deepak Punia misses bronze by a whisker

Deepak Punia. Pic/PTI

Wrestler Deepak Punia, 22, came agonisingly close to winning a bronze medal on his Olympic debut but conceded a take-down in last 10 seconds of the 86kg play-off against San Marino's Myles Nazem Amine to miss out on achieving the feat here on Thursday.

Deepak's defence was superb throughout the bout but the San Marino wrestler grabbed the decisive two-pointer after getting hold of the Indian's right leg and converted it into a take-down in dying moments of the bout.

The Indian was leading 2-1 before that take-down but it was not meant to be his day. Deepak made good use of a favourable draw to reach the semi-finals but lost to the formidable American David Morris Taylor in the Last 4. He earlier got past Nigeria's Ekerekeme Agiomor by technical superiority and then prevailed 6-3 over China's Zushen Lin in the quarter-final.

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