Advertisement

WATCH: Wrestler Dahiya endures bite on arm en route historic win

Screengrab from Twitter
Screengrab from Twitter

The 23-year-old wrestler Ravi Dahiya emerged as India's undisputed star of the day at Tokyo Olympics 2020. Dahiya's charge into the final assured India of a fourth Olympics medal as the wrestlers sent the country's hopes soaring. Trailing 2-9 in the last 3 minutes, Dahiya made a remarkable comeback to win the bout by pinning his Uzbek opponent down to register a historic win for the country.

Nurislam Sanayev, the Kazakh wrestler, frantically bit Dahiya on his arm. But, Dahiya never gave up and successfully pulled off a last-minute takedown that is likely to go down as one of Indian wrestling's most iconic Olympics moments. Dahiya also complained to the referee about the bite. Watch here:

The son of a farmer from Haryana's Nahri village, who is competing in his maiden Olympic Games in the 57kg category, first outclassed Colombia's Tigreros Urbano (13-2) in his opener and then outwitted Bulgaria's Georgi Valentinov Vangelov (14-4).

In his semifinal clash against Kazakhstan's Nurislam Sanayev, he conceded the lead but bounced back like a seasoned professional to march into the finals, becoming only the second wrestler after double Olympic-medallist Sushil Kumar to achieve the feat.

He will be up against reigning world champion Zavur Uguev of Russia to whom he lost in the 2019 World Championship semifinals.

'I had no business conceding that much lead against Sanayev. I am not happy with it,' Dahiya was quoted as saying by PTI.

'I still have some unfinished business to do. I came with a target here and that is not complete yet (winning gold),' Dahiya told PTI.

(With inputs from PTI)