Ravi Kumar Dahiya wins silver medal for India in men’s 57kg freestyle wrestling

Indian wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya bagged the silver medal after losing in the final of men’s 57kg freestyle category to Russian Olympic Committee’s (ROC) Zavur Uguev on Thursday. This is India’s fifth medal at the Tokyo Olympics and the second silver of the campaign.

Ravi Kumar is the fifth Indian wrestler after KD Jadhav, Sushil Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt, and Sakshi Malik to finish on the Olympic podium.

Uguev got the first point of the bout after a tense start that saw both wrestlers defending really well. Uguev pushed the Indian wrestler out of the playing area twice in the initial minutes of the first round to take a 2-0 lead.

Ravi made a good comeback by picking up 2 points but the ROC wrestler immediately went into the advantage as he took 2 points to go up 4-2. Ravi tried to make a comeback in the first period but the score remained 4-2 in favour of Uguev at the break.

Uguev pushed the Indian out again to go up 5-2 in the second period. Ravi tried a move to make a comeback but the ROC wrestler defended really well. Uguev went up 7-2 but Ravi picked up two points to make it 4-7.

Ravi tried very hard but Uguev held on to eventually win 7-4

Ravi had reached the finals by toppling Nurislam Sanayev of Kazakhstan, a former World Championships silver-medallist, in the semis. He had come back from 2-9 down to achieve a victory by fall.

The 23-year-old Indian had beaten Bulgaria’s Georgi Vangelov in the quarters (14-4) and Colombia’s Oscar Tigreros in the round of 16 (13-2) by technical superiority.