Ravi Kumar Dahiya ensures a medal for India in 57kg men freestyle wrestling.
KEY POINTS :
- Tokyo Olympics: Ravi Kumar staged a grand comeback as he first reduced the deficit to 5-9 and then pinned the Kazakh wrestler down with a great move to eventually win the bout ‘by fall’.
- India was assured of a silver medal in the men’s freestyle wrestling 57kg category as Ravi Kumar Dahiya staged a great comeback.
India was assured of a silver medal inside the guys’ freestyle wrestling 57kg category as Ravi Kumar Dahiya staged an excellent comeback against Kazakhstan’s Nurislam Sanayev to make his manner the final.
The bout commenced in a cagey style, with each wrestler registering factors inside the initial minutes of the primary round and sizing up the opponent.
But Sanayev nearly gained the in shape as he registered eight factors in a row by pulling off the scary ‘fitele’ move. Sanayez grabbed Ravi via the ankles and rolled the Indian wrestler 4 instances, which gave him the eight points to take the gain to 9-2.
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But Ravi Kumar staged a grand comeback as he first reduced the deficit to five-nine, as he pushed the Kazakh out of the mat. This pass of Ravi’s left Sanayev bamboozled as he also harms his leg.
The Indian wrestler then made his mental gain count as he pinned the Kazakh wrestler down with a great circulate to sooner or later win the bout ‘by way of fall’.
He may be the 5th wrestler from India to win an Olympic medal after KD Jadhav (bronze in 1952), Sushil Kumar (bronze in 2008 and silver in 2012) and Yogeshwar Dutt (bronze in 2008) and Sakshi Malik (bronze in 2016).
Ravi is a-time Asian Championships gold medallist and a bronze medal winner in 2019.
The other Indian wrestler who qualified for the semi-final, Deepak Punia, wasn’t as lucky as he was defeated via technical superiority in the semi-very last by American David Taylor inside the guys 86kg category.
The American wrestler changed into too suitable for the inexperienced Indian, who turned into in no way within the fight.
How Ravi ensured a silver for India
Despite a large deficit, Dahiya did no longer panic, displaying tremendous mental power and dramatically turned the bout in his favour.
After the quit of the first duration, Dahiya had a 2-1 lead, but Sanayev came organized and attacked the Indian’s left leg, getting an awesome grip of that grew to become him thrice to log six points in a few minutes.
Suddenly Dahiya’s lead changed long gone, and he becomes staring at a defeat, but his superior stamina and technical prowess were nonetheless at paintings. Finally, the ultimate one minute becomes sufficient for him to show the tide, and he did it in style.
He was given maintain of Sanayev with a double leg attack and then gripped him tightly, Kazkahstan wrestler’s lower back at the mat and completed the bout with a may ‘pin’.
Even in his preceding bouts, Dahiya becomes dominant because the 23-12 months received both his preceding contests on technical superiority en course the very last.
Dahiya outclassed Colombia’s Tigreros Urbano (13-2) in his opener, after which he outwitted Bulgaria’s Georgi Valentinov Vangelov (14-four).
He is now the handiest of the fifth Indian wrestler to have won an Olympic medal after KD Jadhav, Sushil Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt and Sakshi Malik.
Jadhav had grown to be India’s first wrestler and also the first person Olympic medallist when he gained a bronze during the 1952 Helsinki Games.
After that, Sushil Kumar enhanced wrestling’s profile by triumphing a bronze on the 2008 Beijing Games and bettered the shade of the medal by claiming a historic silver in 2012 at the London Games that made him India’s only athlete with character Olympic medals.
The feat when you consider that then has now been matched using shuttler PV Sindhu.
In the identical 2012 version of the Games, Yogeshwar Dutt won a bronze.
Sakshi Malik has become the first Indian lady wrestler to win an Olympic medal while taking a bronze in the 2016 Rio Games.
This should properly be a watershed Game for Indian wrestling with both Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia in rivalry.
