Indian wrestler Ravi Dahiya wrote his name in history books with his silver medal feat at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 on Thursday (August 05). Dahiya became only the second Indian wrestler after his idol Sushil Kumar to win a silver medal at the Olympics. He lost his final bout in the Men’s freestyle 57kg category to ROC’s Zaur Uguev.
The Haryana government has announced a Rs 4 cash prize for the 23-year-old wrestler, who hails from the Nahri village in the Sonipat district of the state. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced that Dahiya will also be rewarded with a class 1 category job and a plot of land at 50 percent concession anywhere in the state, apart from the Rs 4 crore cash prize.
The Haryana government will also construct an indoor stadium for wrestling at Dahiya’s village Nahri to train youngsters and future prospects in wrestling.
Dahiya enjoyed a stellar run at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 where he bagged three wins on the trot to make it to the final in his debut campaign. The 23-year-old picked up wins against Colombia’s Oscar Tigreros and Bulgarian Georgi Vangelov to make it to the semi-final where he was up against Kazakhstan’s Nurislam Sanayev.
It was not an easy battle for the Indian, who went 9-2 down in the semis and seemed all but out of the contest at one stage. However, he pulled off a remarkable comeback in the dying minutes of his bout and registered a victory by ‘fall’ to stun the Kazakh and move to the final.
In the final, he was up against two-time world champion Uguev, who was at his best on the day and did not let Dahiya dominate the proceedings. The Russian registered a 7-4 win in the final to clinch the gold medal while the 23-year-old settled with silver medal in his maiden Olympics campiagn.
