Ravi Dahiya Brings Home Silver, Goes Down in Wrestling Final at Tokyo 2020

Ravi Dahiya fetches in silver for the country…learn more…

Friday, 6th August 2021

Indian wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya settled for a silver medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics having lost to Zavur Uguev of Russia in a close match at the finals of the men’s freestyle 57 kg on Thursday.

It was a narrow miss for Dahiya who lost 4 -7 to ROC’s Uguev in the gold medal bout. After the first period of the match, Ravi was trailing 2 – 4. The Russian athlete then propelled further forward to secure a lead of 7-2, however, Ravi refused to cower and fought his way back into the match scoring 2 more points for himself.

Although Dahiya managed to close in and reduce the deficit points to three, Uguev held his defence strong when the Indian tried to go for the big one, giving in all he had. It was a disappointing end for not only the Indian fighter who failed to stand up against the two- time world champion but also the country which came excruciatingly close to securing an Olympic gold in this match.

A disheartened Dahiya said, “I did not come to Tokyo for a silver medal. It will not give me satisfaction. Maybe this time I deserved only a silver because Uguev was a better wrestler today. I could not achieve what I wanted to. His style was very good. I just could not find a way to play my game. I don't know what I could have done. He wrestled very smartly.”

With Ravi’s silver medal, he became the second Indian wrestler to have finished in the second place in wrestling at the Olympics after Sushil Kumar who won a silver at the London Olympics in 2012. Moreover, this also makes India’s count of medals won in wrestling at the Olympics to go up to six.

On Wednesday’ match, Ravi had a smooth victory over Colombia's Tigreros Urbano in his 1/8 final bout to make it to the quarterfinals. In the semi-final he was pitted against Kazakhstan’s Nurislam Sanayev where he pulled off a stunning victory in the final minutes of the match.

The News Talkie Bureau

Source:

Sports NDTV