Tokyo Olympics 2020: Ravi Dahiya wins Silver after losing final, Deepak Punia loses Bronze battle

Ravi Dahiya won a Silver medal after losing the Men’s Freestyle 57-kg Wrestling final, taking India’s overall medal tally from Tokyo 2020 to 5. This medal comes after some memorable wins by Mirabai Chanu (Silver), PV Sindhu, Lovlina Borgohain and the Indian men’s hockey team (Bronze).

Wrestler Ravi Dahiya has become the second Indian wrestler, after Sushil Kumar, to win an Olympic silver medal. That after he lost the gold medal match on Thursday 4-7 against a Russian wrestler. When Ravi entered the gold medal match, it meant that for the fourth straight edition of the Olympic Games, Indian wrestling would have representation on the podium for sure. In 2008 it was Sushil Kumar (bronze), in 2012 Sushil won silver and Yogeshwar Dutt clinched a bronze, in 2016 it was Sakshi Malik’s turn to write her name in the Olympic history books, with a bronze. And now, Ravi has clinched silver for India.

There was plenty of events in an action-packed Wednesday as India won two medals to take their overall tally from Tokyo 2020 to five. It all began with the men in blue defeating Germany 5-4 to win Olympics bronze. In an emotional day for India, Manpreet Singh’s men fought well and made a brilliant comeback to end their 41-year old medal drought, adding their 12th hockey medal to their history.

As India looked for a historic gold medal, the most crucial match of the day was between Ravi Dahiya and Zavur Uguev. On Tuesday, Dahiya was ruthless, completing an incredible comeback to qualify for the final. Ravi put up a great fight in the final, just like he did in the semi, but the Russian was able to win 7-4. Deepak Punia, in a heartbreaking result for India, was leading in his Bronze medal match till the last 10 seconds, before losing 4-2.

Also Read: Tokyo Olympics 2020: Aditi Ashok is off to a good start in women’s golf.