Ravi Dahiya enters record books by winning 3rd straight Asian Wrestling Championships gold

India’s Tokyo Olympic Games silver medalist Ravi Dahiya finished his Asian Wrestling Championships campaign in Ulaanbaatar on a high by winning his third consecutive continental gold medal.

While Dahiya etched his name in the record books, it was heartbreak for India’s star wrestler Bajrang Punia as he settled for silver in the men’s 65kg freestyle category. Gaurav Baliyan added a second silver to Indian’s team tally while Naveen and Satyavrat Kadian won bronze medal in 70kg and 97kg, respectively.

Dahiya set the ball rolling for India by winning gold in 57kg. The Indian took time to get into his groove and lost two vital points to Rakhat Kalzhan of Kazakhstan in the process.

Trailing by two points in the initial stages of the gold-medal round wasn’t a worrying factor for India’s Olympic silver medalist. Once Dahiya stepped up, there was no escape for Kalzhan. With a double leg attack, Dahiya raced to a 4-2 lead.

He quickly collected four points to make it 8-2 at the end of the opening three minutes of the six-minute contest. Dahiya continued to relentlessly attack in the second half. He made it 12-2 to win gold with technical superiority with more than two minutes remaining.

While Dahiya showed his class on Saturday, Punia failed to impress in his gold-medal match. The 28-year-old Olympic bronze medalist has missed out on vital training sessions since June 2021 due to a knee niggle that was reflected in his performance.

Punia wasn’t able to make good moves due to a lack of good training and lost to Iran’s Rahman Mousa Amouzadkhalili 1-3, a world junior champion, in 65kg. It was Mousa's debut at the senior continental level on Saturday.

India missed out on another gold medal as Gaurav Baliyan was slow off the blocks in the first half of the men’s 79kg final against Ali Bakhtia Savadkouhi of Iran.

After trailing by 4-8 in the first half, Baliyan bounced back to make it nine-all. The tie-breaker wasn’t enough to fetch Baliyan gold as an early scoring opportunity was an advantage for Savadkouhi. Naveen beat Mongolia’s Temuulen Enkhtuya 8-0, while Kadian defeated Zyyamuhammet Saparov of Turkmenistan 10-0.