Ravi Kumar Dahiya bagged a silver medal in the men’s 57kg freestyle event after a 4-7 loss to Russia’s Zavur Uguev in the final on Thursday.
Ravi became the second Indian wrestler, after Sushil Kumar, to win a silver medal at the Olympic Games and the fifth wrestler after KD Jadhav, Sushil Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt, and Sakshi Malik to bag an Olympic medal.
The Russian is a two-time World Championships gold medallist. Ravi tried very hard but Uguev held on to eventually win 7-4. Uguev got the first point of the bout after a tense start that saw both wrestlers defending really well. Uguev pushed the Indian wrestler out of the playing area twice in the initial minutes of the first round to take a 2-0 lead.
Ravi made a good comeback by picking up 2 points but the ROC wrestler immediately went into the advantage as he took 2 points to go up 4-2. Ravi tried to make a comeback in the first period but the score remained 4-2 in favour of Uguev at the break.
In the pre-quarters and quarters, Dahiya defeated Colombia Oscar Eduardo and Gerogi Valentinov of Bulgaria by technical superiority. In the finals, he was up against the experienced Sanayev and after trailing 2-9, he pinned the Kazak wrestler in the dying moments of the bout to make it to the Final.
Ravi Dahiya is the reigning Asian Champion in the men’s 57kg freestyle category and a bronze medallist at the 2019 World championships. He was silver medallist at the U23 World Championship in 2018 and heading into the Games reached the final and won a couple of ranking series in 61 kg.
