Tokyo Olympics: Ravi Dahiya settles for silver medal, Deepak Punia misses bronze by a whisker

Tokyo: Indian wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya settled for silver medal after losing 7-4 loss to Zaur Uguev of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) at the Tokyo 2020 57kg freestyle wrestling final, here on Thursday.

However, Dahiya became only the second Indian wrestler to win a silver medal at the Olympic Games after Sushil Kumar, who the silver at the 2012 London Games.

The wrestler from Haryana had beaten Colombia's Tigreros Urbano (13-2) in his opener and then outclassed Bulgaria's Georgi Valentinov Vangelov (14-4) in the quarterfinals.

In the semifinals, he erased a massive 2-9 deficit to pin Nurislam Sanayev to enter final and secure at least a silver medal for India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Dahiya for winning silver medal in Tokyo Olympics. In a tweet, he wrote, "Ravi Kumar Dahiya is a remarkable wrestler! His fighting spirit and tenacity are outstanding. Congratulations to him for winning the Silver Medal at Tokyo2020. India takes great pride in his accomplishments."

Ravi Kumar Dahiya is a remarkable wrestler! His fighting spirit and tenacity are outstanding. Congratulations to him for winning the Silver Medal at #Tokyo2020. India takes great pride in his accomplishments.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 5, 2021

Another Indian wrestler Deepak Punia missed the bronze medal on his Olympic debut by a whisker.

He conceded a take-down in last 10 seconds of the 86kg play-off against San Marino''s Myles Nazem Amine to miss the medal.

Punia earlier had beat by technical superiority and then registered a 6-3 over China's Zushen Lin in the quarterfinal. (Inputs from UNI)