Wrestlers Ravi Dahiya, Deepak Punia secure semifinal berths

Indian wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya (57kg) and Deepak Punia (86kg) enjoyed fruitful outings at the Tokyo Olympic Games as they secured semifinal berths in their respective weight categories at the Makuhari Messe on Wednesday.

On the opening day of the wrestling competition, Ravi Dahiya defeated Bulgaria’s Georgi Vangelov 14-4 on technical superiority to reach the last-four in the men’s 57kg category, while compatriot Deepak Punia overcame China’s Zushen Lin 6-3 on points to advance to the semifinals.

Dahiya will take on Nurislam Sanayev of Kazakhstan in the last-four, while Punia will be up against David Morris Taylor of the USA.

Earlier, Dahiya had won his opening-round bout by technical superiority against Colombia’s Oscar Tigreros to secure a quarterfinal spot. Competing in the Round-of-16 bout against the Colombian wrestler, the 23-year-old Dahiya, who is making his Olympic debut, showed no nerves as he dominated the bout to win by technical superiority (13-2).

Dahiya landed attack after attack and went 13-2 up, winning the bout by technical superiority with minutes to spare. In wrestling, building up a 10-point lead over the opponent results in a victory by technical superiority.

India’s 86kg freestyle wrestler Deepak Punia showed no signs of the niggle that had forced him to pull out of the Poland Open Ranking Series in Warsaw in June, as he defeated Nigeria’s Ekerekeme Agiomor on technical superiority to secure a quarterfinal berth.

He got his Olympic campaign to a fine start as he was in control from the start of the bout and hardly ever allowed his Nigerian opponent any room to manoeuvre his moves, finally winning with a 12-1 on technical superiority.

Punia, who had also suffered an elbow injury just before the Games, was slow at the start but came into his own as the bout progressed, inflicting takedowns at regular intervals to earn points.

The Indian wrestler eased into a 4-1 lead at the break and extended his lead comfortably in the second period. 

Punia, the silver medallist from the 2019 world wrestling championships, then set up a clash with China’s Lin Zushen in the quarterfinals and degeated him 6-3.