India’s Ravi Kumar Dahiya Enters Tokyo Olympics Wrestling 57kg semis, Assures Medal Bout

India’s Ravi Kumar Dahiya marched into the Tokyo 2020 Olympics men’s 57kg freestyle wrestling event’s semi-finals after beating Bulgaria’s Georgi Vangelov in the quarters on Wednesday. Ravi Kumar Dahiya won the bout at the Makuhari Messe Hall in Chiba by technical superiority (14-4).

The win also confirms a medal bout for Ravi Kumar Kumar Dahiya at Tokyo. Even if he loses in the semis, he will move onto the bronze medal match, where he will face an opponent qualifying from the repechage rounds.

In the semi-finals, Ravi Kumar Dahiya will face Kazakhstan’s Nurislam Sanayev, who upset former world champion Yuki Takahashi of Japan in a thrilling quarter-final bout.

Both Ravi Dahiya and Vangelov, having won their opening bouts by technical superiority, made a cautious start and looked to gain control of the match in the early exchanges.

Halfway through the first period, Ravi Kumar Dahiya opened the scoring with an explosive takedown. The Indian grappler continued targeting Vangelov’s right leg and built up a 6-0 lead heading into the second period.

Ravi Kumar drew first blood in the second period too as he scored a two-legged takedown and went 8-0 up. The Bulgarian, however, turned it into an instant reversal to record his first points of the bout.

Trailing 8-2, Vangelov looked to go on the offensive but Ravi Dahiya, instead of defending, chose to respond with an attacking approach of his own.

In a series of furious exchanges, Ravi Dahiya came out on top to build up a 14-4 lead and won the bout by technical superiority. In wrestling, building up a 10-point lead over the opponent results in a victory by technical superiority.

Earlier, Ravi Kumar Dahiya had defeated Colombia’s Oscar Tigreros in the round of 16 to move onto the quarter-finals.

The 23-year-old Ravi Kumar Dahiya, making his Olympic debut, showed no jitters and dominated the bout to win by technical superiority (13-2).

Ravi Kumar Dahiya, the reigning Asian champion and world championships bronze medallist in his division, looked to dictate the terms of the bout early on and kept the Colombian under pressure.

The Indian wrestler soon reaped the reward as he executed a single-leg takedown to go 2-0 up. Oscar Tigreros, a two-time Pan American silver medallist, however, responded with a fine two-point move of his own to level up the scoreline.

In the closing exchanges of the first period, the 23-year-old Ravi Kumar Dahiya edged ahead yet again to wrestle back a one-point lead.

In the opening exchanges of the second period, Ravi Kumar Dahiya upped the ante and used his speed to good effect and overwhelmed the Colombian.

Ravi Kumar Dahiya landed attack after attack and went 13-2 up, winning the bout by technical superiority with minutes to spare.

 (Source: olympics.com)