TOKYO: Indian wrestler Ravi Dahiya on Wednesday made the final of men’s freestyle 57kg at the Tokyo Games thus assuring India of at least a silver medal.
Hailing from village Nahri in Sonepat district of Haryana, the 23-year-old has made a mark in his own way by beating Kazakhstan’s Nurislam Sanayev.
He rose to prominence only when he qualified for the Tokyo Games with a bronze medal winning effort at the 2019 World Championship in Nur Sultan.
He won the Asian Championship in Delhi in 2020 and defended the title this year in Almaty. He competed at Poland Open and lost only one bout. The World Cup in Serbia was an abberation.
Dahiya is a product of the national capital’s Chhatrasal Stadium, which has already given India two Olympic medallists — Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt.
His father, Rakesh Kumar, sent him there when he was a 12-year-old boy and since then has been training under Mahabali Satpal and coach Virender.
