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India’s Olympic Games silver medalist Ravi Dahiya was unstoppable in the men’s 57kg freestyle category at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games on Saturday night.
Dahiya took nearly two minutes and 16 seconds to outclass Nigeria’s Ebikewenimo Welson 10-0 and pocket a gold medal. India’s second gold came in the men’s 74kg through Naveen. Deepak Nehra won bronze in the men’s 97kg.
Ravi Dahiya is one of the Indian wrestlers who takes time to settle down. Perhaps that could have been one of the reasons his winning time in each of the bouts he played on Saturday in Birmingham differs.
He took his semifinal opponent Ali Asad from Pakistan a bit lightly, which is why the match was extended to more than three minutes. It also gave Asad the liberty to score four points. But once Dahiya pressed the pedal, Pakistan's player failed to keep pace and lost the match. Dahiya won 14-4 in three minutes and 20 seconds.
Ravi Dahiya not the only Indian male wrestler to shine on Saturday
By winning gold in the 74kg category in Birmingham, Naveen established that he is at home in this weight category. The 74kg group has been wide open at the domestic level and Naveen won the national trials to compete in the Commonwealth Games.
He defeated Pakistan’s Muhammad Sharif Tahir by a big margin of 9-0 to win the gold for India.
The Pakistan wrestler put in some resistance in the opening three minutes of the six-minute contest, but as the match progressed, Naveen consolidated his winning margin from 2-0 in the initial stages to 9-0 when the long whistle blew.
Apart from Ravi Dahiya, Deepak Nehra won bronze in the men’s 97kg by defeating Tayab Raza of Pakistan 10-2.
With Saturday’s two gold medals, India’s gold medal tally in the men’s wrestling has swelled to four. Bajrang Punia (65kg) and Deepak Punia (86kg) won gold medals in their respective weight categories on Friday.
