Ravi Kumar Dahiya
is trending in India right now and why shouldn’t he be, this 23 year old from
Sonipat in Haryana has paved his way into the men’s freestyle wrestling 57kg
semi-final by first defeating Colombia's Tigreros Urbano13-2, followed by Bulgaria's
Georgi Valentinov Vangelov 14-4 in the ongoing Tokyo Olympics 2020. Ravi’s steps
into the final by winning his semi-final bout against Kazakhstan's Nurislam
Sanayev. Initially, Dahiya was trailing 2-9, before he turned the tables with 5-9, followed by him finally pinning his opponent down with a double leg attack
to win the bout and enter the final, it was quiet a seat griping match, having
its high and low eventually Ravi made his comeback arising as the victor to
fight for gold on Thursday.
Dahiya (who
is the son of a Haryana farmer) has joined the ranks of KD Jadhav (bronze-1952
Helsinki Games), Yogeshwar Dutt (bronze-2021 London games), Sakshi Malik (first
female, bronze 2016- Rio Olympics) and Sushil Kumar who previously was the only India
to make it into the gold medal bout at 2012 London Olympics but had to settle
for a silver.
Ravi’s walk
into the finals has given India the hope for atleast a silver, making the total
tally count of India up to 4 (Mirabai Chanu, Lovlina Borgohain, PV Sindhu and Ravi
Kumar Dahiya) and thus making him the first Indian male athlete to secure a medal in
the Tokyo Olympics. Ravi is not a novice and has had an upper hand in wrestling
with bronze medal in the 57kg category in 2019 World Championship, gold medal in
2020 Asian Championship, gold medal in 2021 Asian Championship and silver medal
in 2018 world u-23 Championships.
As the saying goes practice makes perfect Dahiya too has done his fair share, he has been training since the age of ten under the guidance of the celebrated wrestling coach Satpal Singh at the Chhatrasal Stadium in Delhi. Before his departure for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics he has been undergoing quality training in Russia along with Deepak Punia and Bajrang Punia.
After his successful win on Wednesday Ravi’s
father Rakesh Dahiya's was reported telling the news agency ANI "It feels
like Diwali today. He has made Haryana, our village Nahri and the nation proud".
His next
match is against the two time world champion Zavur Uguev of ROC in Freestyle
57kg gold medal bout on Thursday August 5.
