Dahiya’s silver extends wrestling run

Ravi Dahiya was feeling miserable. He had become only the second Indian wrestler to win an Olympic silver, after Sushil Kumar in 2012, but the glint of the medal hanging from his neck was not enough to soften the pain of defeat. He did not celebrate the silver. He was so close to gold.

The 23-year-old wrestler from Haryana lost the final bout of the 57kg freestyle wrestling event to

Zavur Uguev of Russia, the twotime world champion and on the day, just a little bit superior to the young Dahiya, making his Olympic debut.

“Jis cheez ke liya aaye the, kami rahe gayi. Kuch kami rahe gayi mere me (I was not able to do what I came here to do. I fell short),” said Dahiya.

Dahiya’s disappointment was palpable, but his achievement is no less significant.

A silver in Tokyo has only added to the stature of wrestling as that rare sport outside of cricket where India has a strong global presence. Starting with Sushil Kumar’s bronze in Beijing 2008, India has now won a medal in every edition of the Games since.

The previous day, Dahiya bounced back from the brink of defeat to pin the two-time world championships medallist Nurislam Sanayev in a thrilling semifinal. Against Uguev, he got no such opportunity. The Russian was swift with his counters, and strong in defence. He opened a 2-0 lead through step-outs. Dahiya brought him down to draw parity. But Uguev scored another two points with a takedown even as Dahiya did well to avoid getting tangled. In the second period, with Uguev leading 4-2, Dahiya stepped up the attack, but Uguev scored another three points with a fast counter. With one-and-a-half minutes remaining, a takedown gave Dahiya two more points but that was all he could muster.

“I am an athlete, and I can’t be satisfied by anything less than gold,” he said. “People will celebrate, that is fine, but I will improve and come back stronger.”