Olympics medallist Dahiya pinned in Asian Games trials

Vinayak Padmadeo

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New Delhi, July 23

Olympics silver medallist Ravi Dahiya’s season is over. Not only will he not be in action at the Asian Games, he will not take part in the World Championships, which is a qualifying event for the Paris Olympics. Dahiya was today eliminated in the 57kg trials for the Asian Games. In an embarrassing loss, Dahiya was pinned on the mat with the score reading 20-8 in Atish Todkar’s favour. Dahiya also ended up aggravating his long-term knee injury, which has ended his season prematurely.

Doctors had already warned Dahiya that he would require surgery to fix the problem as he has a torn meniscus as well as an anti-cruciate ligament tear. But the 25-year-old ignored the advice as he was keen to fight in the trials. Now he has sought an appointment with the renowned orthopaedic surgeon Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala. “We have sought an appointment with Dr Pardiwala and I think he will see us on Tuesday,” said Dahiya’s mentor Arun Kumar.

“We had consulted a local doctor in Shalimar Bagh as he was experiencing pain during training. We were told that surgery was the only option. He wanted to train and take part in the trials. We think he can be ready by January next year,” Kumar added.

Dahiya injured his right knee in February. “He is brave but we could see he was not 100 per cent fit in training. We hid this injury because we did not want anyone to target it. But now we know there is no option but to get the surgery done,” Kumar said.

Aman qualifies

Reigning Asian Championships gold medallist Aman Sehrawat underlined his superiority in the 57kg class as he defeated Rahul, a fellow trainee at the Chhatrasal Stadium, 10-2 to book a berth for the Asian Games. Rahul

had beaten Todkar 10-0 in the semifinals.

In the 65kg, it was Vishal Kaliraman and not Sujeet Kalkal who finished on top after beating Rohit 9-3 in the final. Kalkal lost his petition in the High Court against the exemption given to Bajrang Punia. Despite the win, Vishal’s name will be sent as a standby. “It is a sad situation to be in. I won four bouts today to win the trial and I will not be going to the Asian Games. This scheme of sending him (Bajrang) without trial is wrong and unfair,” Vishal said.

Also making the cut for the team were Olympian Deepak Punia, who narrowly beat Jonty Bhati in the 86kg category, Sumit Malik, who outclassed Ashish in the 125kg weight division.

Standby names in all categories

The ad hoc body has decided to send the standby names in all the weight categories as part of the final list for the Asian Games. Previously, only the standby names in Bajrang Punia’s weight class and Vinesh Phogat’s category were to be sent.