Silver solace for Ravi Kumar Dahiya at Tokyo Olympics wrestling

Ravi Kumar Dahiya fell short of winning an Olympic gold medal following a 7-4 loss to Zaur Uguev of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) at the Tokyo 2020 57kg freestyle wrestling final on Thursday.

Ravi Kumar Dahiya, however, will walk away from the Tokyo Olympics with a silver medal. With it, the 23-year-old Ravi is now the sixth Indian wrestler to win a medal at the Games and only the second to bag a silver after Sushil Kumar.

India have now won five medals, two of which are silver, at the Tokyo Olympics so far.

This was two-time Asian champion Ravi Kumar Dahiya’s second straight loss to Zavur Uguev, a two-time world champion, in as many meetings.

The two met in the semi-finals of the 2019 world championships last time where the Indian wrestler lost out in the final seconds of the bout in a closely fought contest.

At the Makuhari Messe, Ravi Kumar Dahiya began the final by assessing his opponent’s moves before launching his attack but conceded two points to Uguev.

With the bench encouraging Ravi Dahiya, a world’s bronze medallist, to match the ROC wrestler’s pace, the Indian grappler dipped further to find a hold and turn Zaur Uguev around for his first takedown.

But Zaur Uguev was quick to turn around and return the favour as the two headed into the break with the reigning world champion leading 4-2.

Though Zaur Uguev seemed visibly tired in the second period, he didn’t allow Ravi Dahiya a clear opening to make a move.

With the clock ticking, the Indian wrestler went for the kill and scored two points. But Zaur Uguev was once again quick to counter, adding three more points to seal the match.

Ravi Kumar Dahiya came into the match on the back of a last-gasp win in the semi-finals on Wednesday. There, the Indian overturned a 9-2 deficit in the final 10 seconds to beat Kazakhstan’s Nurislam Sanayev by fall.