Tokyo 2020, Wrestling: Ravi Dahiya reaches final, assures medal; Deepak moves to bronze medal bout

Tokyo, August 4: India wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya made an incredible comeback to defeat Kazakhstan's Nurislam Sanayev to reach the finals of the men's freestyle 57kg category at the Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday (August 4).

Ravi, who was 7-9 down on points, defeated Sanayev via fall in the semi-finals at Makuhari Messe Hall A, Mat B. Dahiya will now contest for the gold medal on Thursday (August 5) and is the first Indian to enter the final since Sushil in 2012.

In the first period, Ravi Dahiya managed to take a 2-1 lead and in the second period, the pressure was entirely on Sanayev, who bounced back strongly in the second period to quickly cut the lead of Dahiya.

Ravi Kumar Dahiya in 57kg wrestling final in Tokyo: All you need to know, final opponent, final time in IST

At the start of the second period, the entire pressure was put on the Indian grappler, but in the end, Dahiya staged a comeback and sealed a pinfall win to assure at least a silver medal by progressing to the final, where he will face second seed from Russia, Zavur Uguev.

Earlier, Ravi Kumar Dahiya defeated Colombia's Oscar Tigreros in the 1/8 Final and Bulgaria's Georgi Valentinov Vangelov in the 1/4 Final via technical superiority to reach the semifinal.

Tokyo 2020: Wrestlers Ravi Dahiya, Deepak Punia reach semis as Anshu Malik bows out

Meanwhile, fellow Indian wrestler Deepak Punia lost his men's freestyle 86kg semifinal via technical superiority to USA's David Taylor III.

The 22-year-old Indian will now face one of the repechage winners in the bronze medal match, which is scheduled to take place on Thursday (August 5). He will look to add another medal for India, who have won three medals so far at the Tokyo Olympics.

On his route to the semifinal, Deepak had earned a technical superiority win over Nigeria's Ekerekeme Agiomor in the 1/8 Final and a win on points against China's Zushen Lin in the 1/4 Final.

Earlier on Wednesday (August 4), young Indian wrestler Anshu Malik lost her 57 kg women's freestyle 1/8 Final to to Belarus' Iryna Kurchkina, but the 19-year-old has a bronze medal chance as she will enter the repechage round, where she will face ROC's Valeria Koblova.

On Tuesday (August 3) Sonam Malik bowed out of the Olympics after a defeat on points in the womens freestyle 62kg category.