Ravi Dahiya (57kg) scripted history as he was the only grappler to clinch a gold medal among the four Indian finalists on the penultimate day of the Asian Wrestling Championships at the KD Jadhav wrestling hall in the national capital. Dahiya outsmarted Tajikistan’s Hikmatullo Vohidov by 10-0 on technical superiority in the second half of the game.
Bajrang Punia (65kg), Gourav Baliyan (79kg) and Satywart Kadian (97kg) bagged silver medal for India.
Ravi Dahiya stole the spotlight as he got the better of Tajik grappler Vohidov Hikmatullo by technical superiority by 10-0 in the 57kg title clash.
Japanese Otoguro Takuto got the better of Bajrang Punia by 10-2 in the gold medal bout of the 65kg category while 2019 Asian Championships bronze medallist Satywart Kadian settled for silver by beating two-time Under-23 World champion and UWW U23 Wrestler of 2019 Iranian Goleij Mojtaba Mohammadshafie.
Gourav Baliyan (79kg), who participated in his first ever competitive Asian Wrestling Championship, tried his best during the game but he narrowly went down to an experienced campaigner Kyrgyz Budazhapov Arsalan 5-7 in a bid to settle for a silver medal.
While addressing the media reporters at the post-match press conference, Gourav said, “My aim was to win gold. My opponent is a good wrestler and his last move worked out. Seven seconds was too less to get another point”.
Meanwhile, Naveen (70kg) missed the trick to win bronze medal after going down 12-1 to Kazakhstan’s Ashirov Meirzhan.
(With ABP inputs)