Indian grappler Ravi Kumar Dahiya assured India of at least a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics when he stormed into the men’s 57kg freestyle final with a ‘victory by fall’ over Kazakhstan’s Nurislam Sanayev in the semifinal on Wednesday.
Dahiya became only the second Indian wrestler in history after Sushil Kumar — who had entered the 2012 London Olympics final but ended up winning silver — to make it to the title round at the quadrennial showpiece.
The Indian wrestler, who is making his Olympic debut, will face the Russian Olympic Committee’s (ROC) Zavur Uguev — a two-time world champion — in the final.
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In what was a tight start to the contest at the Makuhari Messe Hall in Chiba, Dahiya conceded the first points due to a passivity call but roared back instantly with a two-point take down.
Leading 2-1 heading into the second period, Dahiya was dealt a huge blow after the action restarted, when Sanayev got behind the Indian, caught hold of his ankles, and twirled him around a few times to flip the score 9-2 in his favor.
Desperately looking to turn things around, Dahiya made a brilliant comeback by first managing to push Sanayev out of bounds to reduce the deficit to 9-5. The move apparently injured the Kazakh wrestler, but he decided to continue.
With just 50 seconds left on the clock, Dahiya scored a two-point takedown and converted it to a pin — exposing both his opponent’s shoulders to the mat — and won the bout by fall.
Earlier, Dahiya had entered the semifinals after beating Bulgaria’s Georgi Vangelov in the quarterfinals (14-4) and Colombia’s Oscar Tigreros in the round of 16 (13-2) by technical superiority.
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In wrestling, building up a 10-point lead over the opponent results in a victory by technical superiority.
SOURCE-IANS
