Silver for Ravi Dahiya at Olympics 2021, loses hard-fought final to ROC wrestler Zaur Uguev

There was pin-drop silence at the Makuhari Messe Hall after Ravi Dahiya went down against the Russian Olympic Committee’s (ROC) Zaur Uguev in the gold medal match on Thursday at the Olympics.

Ravi Dahiya put up a strong fight but failed to break Uguev’s solid defense and settled for a silver medal. He is India’s second Olympic silver medalist after Sushil Kumar. Kumar had won his silver at the 2012 London Games.

Both Ravi Dahiya and Uguev started the bout aggressively but the Indian wrestler found himself trailing early. However, Ravi quickly recovered the lost ground and equalized the score with a takedown.

Uguev made sure to go for another attack as soon as the referee resumed play. The world champion went for a leg attack as Ravi Dahiya found himself on his back.

The 23-year-old Indian tried retaliating but could not even the scorers at the end of the first period.

In the second period, Ravi tried to out maneuver Uguev by pushing him out but the Russian countered and got one point. Ravi Dahiya managed to score two points but by then Uguev had taken a three-point lead to win the bout 7-4.

The two wrestler had last met in the semifinals at the 2019 World Championships, with the ROC athlete taking the victory by a score of 6-4.

Ravi Dahiya had dominant technical superiority wins in the first and second rounds. In the semifinals, he beat Nurislam Sanayev, the current bronze medalist, by a pinfall in the dying seconds. Ravi Dahiya made a stunning comeback to enter the final.

Deepak Punia misses out on bronze medal

Deepak Punia, on the other hand, missed out on the bronze medal after Myles Amine scored two points in the final seconds to win the bout 3-2.

India did challenge the takedown but lost and the final score was 4-2 in the San Marino wrestler’s favor. Earlier, Vinesh Phogat (53 kg) bowed out of the Olympics in the women's 53kg category.