Ravi Kumar Dahiya enters 57kg wrestling final, assures India fourth Olympic medal in Tokyo

Ravi Kumar Dahiya reached the men's freestyle 57kg final on Wednesday and assured India its first wrestling medal at the Tokyo Olympics. Ravi Kumar staged a grand comeback as he first reduced the deficit to 5-9 and then pinned the Kazakh wrestler down with a great move to eventually win the bout 'by fall'.

India was assured of at least a silver medal in the men's freestyle wrestling 57kg category as Ravi Kumar Dahiya staged a great comeback against Kazakhstan's Nurislam Sanayev to make his way to the final. After Sushil Kumar, Worlds bronze medallist and two-time Asian champion Ravi became the second Indian wrestler to book a berth in the final.

Ravi Kumar may have been down at that point but he certainly was out yet. He then staged a grand comeback; first reducing the deficit to 5-9, as he pushed the Kazakh out of the mat. This move of Ravi left Sanayev bamboozled as he also hurt his leg. The Indian wrestler, then, made his psychological advantage count as he pinned the Kazakh wrestler down with a great move to eventually win the bout 'by fall'.

Ravi is a two-time Asian Championships gold medallist and a bronze medal winner at the World Championships in 2019. Worlds silver medallist Deepak Punia won two bouts before losing to former World champion David Taylor of the USA 10-0 in the 86kg semifinals. He will face either four-time Worlds bronze medallist Ali Shabanau or European bronze medallist Myles Amine in the bronze medal contest.