Bajrang Punia on Sunday iterated that he was not overjoyed with his bronze-winning performance at the Tokyo Olympics.

“Nobody gets affected by defeat more than the athlete. After losing the semi-final on Friday (against Haji Aliyev of Azerbaijan), I could hardly sleep. I am unhappy that I wasn’t able to give my best performance because of my injury. I will work harder and will try to bring joy to the nation again in Paris (2024 Games),” he said on Sunday.

Asked which bout was the toughest in Tokyo, he said: “Every one of them. The standard of wrestlers was very high and apart from one or two, anyone could win on his day.”

Bajrang had injured his right knee in the run-up to the Tokyo Games, but could not take the time off that was needed to help it heal completely.

Asked why he did not use the knee support during the bronze-medal match on Saturday, he said: “I don’t feel comfortable being strapped. I feel like I’m trapped. My doctors and physios didn’t want to take a chance so I played my earlier matches strapping my right knee. But for the bronze match, all I wanted was a medal. Even if I had hurt my knee, it didn’t matter anymore.”