Ravi gold makes up for Bajrang’s silver, Naveen settles for bronze

Vinayak Padmadeo

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 22

On a day when Ravi Dahiya won his first-ever Asian Championships gold by a technical superiority over Tajikistan’s Hikmatullo Vohidov in the 57kg category, the Indian wrestling team was given a reality check “ahead of this year’s Tokyo Olympics.

Dahiya was the saving grace for the 1000-strong crowd that had come to see Bajrang Punia excel on home turf. And Bajrang did put up a show as he scythed through his opponents in the earlier rounds. But when it came to the crunch match against Japan’s Takuto Otoguro, who had beaten him in the 2018 World Championships final, Bajrang was once again found wanting.

Bajrang first demolished Tajikistan’s Dzhamshed Sharifov 11-0 and then beat Uzbekistan’s Abbos Rakhmonov 12-2 in the quarterfinals and took out Iran’s Amirhossein Azim Maghsoudi 10-0 to book his revenge bout against Otoguro.

While all the wins were registered with technical superiority, the only points that Bajrang conceded was against Rakhmonov. Next up was the big bout and Bajrang was out for revenge. But he could do very little in the match that had the Wrestling Federation of India officials worried.

He trailed 1-3 after the first period. Otoguro’s strategy to look for counters did the damage as Bajrang kept losing points on the attack.

Otoguro took the lead with a two-point takedown but Bajrang got back with a solitary push-out point. Otoguro then scored one for a push-out too. In the second period, Bajrang had no answers to Otoguro’s tactics. Otoguro’s lead went up to 5-1 very early and it soared to 7-1 as he scored two points on the counter. A push-out by Otoguro was followed by another two-point takedown. While Bajrang scored a point via a push-out, the 2-10 defeat was hard to take.

Emphatic win

Dahiya scored an emphatic victory over Vohidov with 2:32 seconds remaining on the shot clock. On his way to gold, Dahiya beat two-time World Championships medallist Nurislam Sanayev 7-2 in the semifinals before outclassing 2017 world champion Yuki Takahashi of Japan 14-5.

Gaurav’s silver lining

Eighteen-year-old Gaurav Baliyan gave it all against Arsalan Budazhapov of Kyrgyzstan and settled for the silver in the final of the 79kg category. In the day’s other final, Satyawart Kadian lost to Iran’s Mojtaba Mohammadshafie Goleij 10-0 in the 87kg category, while Naveen (70kg) lost 1-12 in his bronze-medal bout against Kazakhstan’s Meirzhan Ashirov.