Ravi Kumar Dahiya on Thursday became the second Indian wrestler to win an Olympic silver after losing 7-4 to Zavur Uguev of ROC in the men's 57kg final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Sushil Kumar is the only other Indian to win a gold medal in the bout – he won a silver medal at the 2012 Olympics in London.
This is India's first silver medal in this Olympics. He had earlier won four bronzes through Mirabai Chanu (weightlifting), PV Sindhu (badminton), Lovlina Borgohain (boxing) and the men's hockey team.
This is the fourth consecutive Olympics where India has won a wrestling medal. India's previous medals in wrestling came through KD Jadhav (bronze in 1952), Sushil (bronze in 2008 and silver in 2012), Yogeshwar Dutt (bronze in 2012) and Sakshi Malik (bronze in 2016).
Deepak Punia missed out on a medal after losing 2-4 to Miles Amin of San Marino in the men's 86kg bronze medal bout on Thursday.
Uguaev came into the match on a 25-match winning stake and has won a gold medal in this category at each of the last two World Championships. The Russian is a master of the mat, inventive, technically brilliant and had won over Ravi at the World Championships as well.
Uguaev used all his experience in the first period to take a 4-2 lead. He then pushed Ravi off the mat at the start of the second period to take a 5-2 lead. Ravi was then cautioned to avoid engaging and Uguaev made another takedown to extend the lead to 7-2. Ravi then won a few points to reduce the lead to 7-4. Ravi put a lot of pressure on Uguaev in the final 90 seconds, but the world champion's defense was strong and hard to break.
When the draw was announced, luck seemed to be smiling on Ravi, who won a bronze medal at the last World Championships. He faced Oscar Tigreros Urbano in the first round and then faced Giorgi Vangelov in the quarter-finals, both of whom were sent off easily, Ravi won by technical superiority---the official for a difference of 10 points during a match. tenure.
Ravi then faced a tough opponent in the semi-finals in the form of Nurislam Sanayev of Kazakhstan. Sanayev is a two-time world medalist, winning silver in 2018 and bronze in 2019. He had gone to win a bronze medal in this Olympics earlier on Thursday. Against Sanayev - who entered the match with a head injury earlier on Wednesday, Ravi had to employ every last bit of his skill to give himself a shot at reaching the final. A lapse in concentration caused him to be caught in an ankle lace - his 2-1 lead turned into a 9-2 deficit. But Ravi was not done. Before Sanayev's eight point burst, he was pulling Sanayev to one side, the other leaning on him, exhausting him. Now it seemed that Sanev had burnt himself by raising that lead and was content to get the bus parked.
In his quarterfinal against Yuki Takahashi of Japan, Sanayev grabbed his opponent's singlet to deny him leverage and claimed an injury to earn rest time. He tried to do the same with Ravi but it didn't work.
With the match at 9–5 in Sanayev's favor, and almost a minute and ten seconds left on the clock, Sanayev claimed another injury to his leg. He took a minute and a half, but instead of being disheartened, Ravi calmed himself - sprinting around the mat to return to Sanayev. When they did, the pressure was back. This time, Ravi shot a double leg takedown and then transitioned to a chest wrap with the Kazakh shoulder blades an inch above the canvas. In desperation, he appeared to bite Ravi's biceps, but there was no release until the referee slapped the mat and whistled to announce the pin.
Second seed Deepak had lost to former world champion David Morris Taylor III in the men's 86kg category on Wednesday. Taylor eventually won the gold medal in the category.
Deepak had drawn an easy draw by defeating Nigeria's Ekrekeme Egiomor, African Championships bronze medalist in his opening bout. The Nigerian was nimble but Deepak was technically sound and won comfortably.
She then defeated Lin Zushen of China in a very tight match to reach the Olympic semi-finals in her silver medal at the last World Championships.
They took a 3–1 lead but Lynn leveled the takedown at 3–3 and went ahead on criteria. The referee awarded Deepak two points for a throw but the decision was overturned after a successful challenge by China.
After just 10 seconds, Deepak must have seen his Olympic hopes tarnished. Then with the Chinese wrestler content for the win, Deepak ducked his hips, lifted Zushen off the mat, turned him over and followed him with the final action of the match. The Chinese team protested but was almost out of desperation. The point of a late takedown and a failed protest meant that Deepak had reached the semi-finals of the Olympics, and was now one victory away from a guaranteed medal.