Indian wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya of India wins silver after losing to ROC’s Zavur Uguev
Ravi Dahiya became only the second Indian wrestler to win a silver medal at the Olympic Games on Thursday, falling 4-7 to reigning world champion Zavur Uguev in the men’s freestyle 57kg title match in Tokyo.
The 23-year-old Dahiya was expected to become India’s youngest Olympic champion, but the Russian defended well to win comfortably.
Dahiya had also been defeated by Uguev in the 2019 World Championship.
In his opener, the wrestler from Nahri village in Haryana outclassed Colombia’s Tigreros Urbano (13-2) and then outwitted Bulgaria’s Georgi Valentinov Vangelov (14-4) in the quarterfinals.
He came back from a 2-9 deficit in the semifinals to pin Nurislam Sanayev.
Sushil Kumar, who is now in jail on murder charges, is the only other Indian wrestler to have reached the Olympics final.
At the 2012 London Olympics, he won silver, while Yogeshwar Dutt took bronze. Sushil had won a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
India now has five Olympic medalists in wrestling.
KD Jadhav had won a bronze medal in the Helsinki Games in 1952. Sakshi Malik became the first woman wrestler to win an Olympic medal when she took bronze in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
