Ravi Kumar Dahiya on Wednesday became the second Indian wrestler to make a place in an Olympic final after making a remarkable comeback against Kazakhstan's Nurislam Sanayev in the men's 57kg semi-final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. He will face two-time ROC world champion Jaur Uguev in the final. Before Dahiya, the son of a farmer from Haryana, Sushil Kumar was the only Indian to win a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics in London, where he won a silver medal.
Ravi had earlier started his campaign with two technical superiority victories to easily reach the semi-finals. Meanwhile, second seed Deepak Punia lost to former world champion David Morris Taylor III in the men's 86kg category semi-final. Now they will face the bronze medal on Thursday. In the women's section, 19-year-old Anshu Malik lost her opening match 2-8 to European champion Irina Kurachkina in the 57kg category. However she is still in the medal race via repechage as Kurachkina advances to the gold medal bout. Anshu will face ROC's Valeria Koblova in the first round of repechage on Thursday. Koblova won a silver medal in the women's 58 kg category at the Rio Olympics and also won a silver medal at the 2014 World Championships.
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).
Sanayev entered the bout with a head injury he had suffered in the quarterfinals earlier in the day, but that didn't stop him as he executed a leg-less move to take a big lead.
Ravi was down 9-2 with almost a minute and thirty seconds on the clock but managed to turn things around. Like many Indian wrestlers, his style is built around stamina and endurance and a late comeback is not uncommon for the 23-year-old. He then took down Sanayev and was awarded two points to bring the score down to 9-4. Another point was added by the referee after Sanayev was penalized for pulling on Ravi's singlet. In anticipation of the impending charge, Sanev took time off to recover, indicating the injury to his leg. In his quarterfinal match against Yuki Takahashi, he also adopted this strategy without penalty.
However, Ravi maintained his composure. He waited for the Kazakh wrestler to rise, then shot for a double leg takedown. Once Sanev fell down, Ravi continued the chain wrestling. He locked Sanev's arm and leg and turned it on his back to force the pin and fell and won.
"I had no business giving me such an edge against Sanayev. I'm not happy with it. I've beaten Sanayev twice before, so I knew I could pull it off even though I was behind by a huge margin. Was reassured from inside, but I shouldn't, "I have taken the lead and fought hard. It was bad enough for me," Dahiya told PTI.
"I still have some unfinished work to do. I came here with a target and that is yet to be accomplished (winning the gold)," he said.
Sanayev is a two-time world medalist, having won silver in 2018 and bronze in 2019. Ravi had also won bronze in the 2019 Worlds.
Taylor III was the 2018 world champion in the 86kg category and his big experience shone as he won by technical superiority against young Deepak, using just 2:49 on the clock in the first period.
Fourth-seeded Ravi continued to attack Colombia's Oscar Tigreros Urbano on the right foot as he remained dominant in his first bout, apart from accepting a first-round take-down.
Reigning Asian champion and world bronze medalist Ravi clocked a minute and 10 seconds to win the bout, which was called off after winning to a 13-2 lead.
The Indian made five take-down moves in the second period, which showed his technical prowess.
He then defeated Georgi Vangelov of Bulgaria in his quarterfinal match with technical superiority. Against Vangelov, Ravi relied on his double leg attacks, slowly building up his lead.
Deepak made the easiest draw by defeating Nigeria's Ekrekeme Egiomor, African Championships bronze medalist in his opening match. The Nigerian was nimble but Deepak was technically sound and won comfortably.
She then defeated Lin Zhushen of China in a very tight match to reach the Olympic semi-finals for 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 it was almost in 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.
This would have happened before the start of the day's play, Deepak's team would have been on target. The Indian wrestling contingent must have thought they had it on Tuesday when the draws for the men's 57kg freestyle category and 86kg division were announced. India's representatives in the two weight categories were both world medalists - Ravi won bronze and Deepak won silver in 2019 at Noor Sultan, but you always need luck in the sport.
Ravi's draw saw him against Urbano, who finished ninth at the 2019 Worlds, and then potentially against European 5th-place finisher Georgi Vangelov.
Deepak found his physically strong but technically unmatched opponent from Nigeria in his first match against Zushen with a tough question. But if Deepak had to dig deeper to get himself out of a hole against Jushen, Ravi didn't even sweat. He outscored his opponents by beating them 27–7 by technical superiority (awarded when there was a 10 point difference between wrestlers). The closest a wrestler got was when Urbano drew 2-2 in the first round. Ravi, however, secured a step out point and then defeated Colombia 10-0 in the second period.
Sanayev had earlier defeated former world champion Yuki Takahashi in a controversial decision in which he was penalized for excessive delay in play and not pulling off his opponent's jersey. Ravi had last faced Sanev in the semi-finals of the Asian Championships, where he was a 7-2 winner.
Asian champion Anshu came back strongly after taking a 0-4 lead against the Belarusian with two push-out points. She even managed to grab Kurachkina's right leg, but she could not complete it.
In retaliation, Anshu conceded another two-pointer but kept fighting. The European relied on his experience and eventually won, even as the Indian struggled hard on his Olympic debut.