Ravi Dahiya vs Zavur Uguev, Gold Medal Match, Men’s 57 kg Wrestling, Tokyo Olympics: India’s Ravi Dahiya lost to Russian Olympic Committee’s Zavur Uguev in the final of Men’s 57kg wrestling at the Tokyo 2020 to claim silver medal. Dahiya flew under the radar for most of the Olympic build-up with the likes of Bajrang Punia, Deepak Punia and Vinesh Phogat in the spotlight as potential medal winners for the country in Tokyo. But, Dahiya made short work of his opponents in the preliminary and quarters before making stunning comeback against Nurislam Sanayev of Kazakistan.
Hailing from Nahri village in Haryana’s Sonipat district, Dahiya Dahiya defeated Colombia’s Oscar Eduardo and Gerogi Valentinov of Bulgaria by technical superiority in the per-quarters and quarters. In the semi-final, he was up against the experienced Sanayev and after trailing 2-9, he pinned the Kazak wrestler in the dying moments of the bout to make it to the final where he could not go past the two-time World Championship gold medallist, Uguev.
Dahiya is also the reigning Asian Champion in the men’s 57kg freestyle category and a bronze medallist at 2019 World championships. He was silver medallist at the U23 World Championship in 2018 and heading into the Games reached the final and won couple of ranking series in 61 kg. Dahiya started training from the age of six in a village akhara and by the age of 12, started to train under coach Satpal at New Delhi’s Chhatrasal Stadium, a place which has given India two Olympics medallists in Sushil and Yogeshwar Dutt. His father Rakesh, who worked as a farmer on rented paddy fields, used to travel 28kms every day for over a decade to deliver home-cooked food, milk and butter to his son. Soon, Dahiya started to progress was touted as the next big thing from Chhatrasal’s line of up-and-coming wrestlers. Medals at the junior level and national championships justified the billing.
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