A comeback worth its weight in...

Chhatrasal wrestler Dahiya overcomes a seven-point deficit to pin his Kazakh rival in the 57kg semi-final

Men’s freestyle 86kg

Men’s freestyle 57kg

Women’s freestyle 57kg

Men’s javelin throw qualification

Women’s 64-69kg semi-final

Women’s semi-final

Women’s individual stroke play Round 1

Ravi Dahiya, the 23-yearold wrestler from Haryana had not put a foot wrong on his Olympic debut—winning his first two bouts by “technical superiority” which is when a bout is stopped because one wrestler has taken a ten-point lead over the other.

But now, in the semi-final against two-time world championship medallist Nurislam Sanayev of Kazakhstan, a step away from becoming only the second Indian wrestler in an Olympic final, he was in deep trouble.

It was the second half, only a minute and thirty seconds left to the finish, and Dahiya, the reigning Asian champion, was trailing 9-2.

Going into the second period, with a slender 2-1 lead, Dahiya had been caught out by one of the deadliest moves in wrestling, the “leg lace”, known as “fitley” in India. With Sanayev having locked his ankles from behind, Dahiya had found himself being rotated at will.

Just when Sanayev was one more turn away from scoring two more points, which would have taken the score to 11-2 and given him the win by technical superiority, Dahiya found a final burst of strength to stop him. Sanayev tried—once, twice, thrice, but could not budge Dahiya anymore and the referee put an end to the move.

When he got back on his feet again, Dahiya went for broke— Sanayev was overwhelmed by waves of attacks that were as frenzied as they were calmly calculated. Now up to 9-5, Sanayev called for medical help to get his knee strapped.

“We told him to be patient, concentrate and then attack because in such situations a trailing wrestler generally gets puzzled, starts looking at the clock and makes mistakes,” said coach Anil Mann, who was in Dahiya’s corner for the bout.

“Ravi was a bit flustered when he was making a comeback and the opponent took some time out for injury treatment.”

Even the time out did not help Sanayev as Dahiya sprung for yet another double-leg takedown. This time Sanayev defended by leaning into Dahiya and the Indian wrestler, with a ferocious and superbly thought-out move, used Sanayev’s momentum against him, turning him to his back. Before Sanayev knew what happened, Dahiya had a headlock in place and had Sanayev fully under his control. Sanayev tried to resist but simply had no option but to get both shoulders down on the mat—a fall— that gave Dahiya the win. A shocked Sanayev scratched his head in disbelief.

Dahiya, emulating his idol—the double Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar who won a silver in 2012 London— was in the final.

Dahiya has been a force to reckon with since his junior days, winning medals at the U-23 world championships and world junior championships. He immediately established himself when he graduated to the senior level, winning a bronze at the 2019 world championships and earning an Olympic quota for India.

In the build up to the Tokyo Olympics, he won gold at the Asian Championships this year and then trained in Russia for a month.

“That preparation has helped because we got quality sparring,” Mann said. “He is mentally strong and has that confidence that he can beat any wrestler on the mat.”