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2019 World Wrestling Championships

2019 World Wrestling Championships: Ravi Kumar wins bronze on debut

Dahiya (57kg) wins the bronze medal at the 2019 World Wrestling Championships beating Iran's Reza Ahmadali Atrinagharchi.

2019 World Wrestling Championships: Ravi Kumar wins bronze on debut
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The Bridge Desk

Updated: 25 July 2021 4:05 AM GMT

India's latest wrestling sensation Ravi Kumar Dahiya (57kg) clinched the bronze medal at the 2019 World Wrestling Championships staging an upset to beat Iran's Reza Ahmadali Atrinagharchi on Friday at Nur Sultan in Kazakhstan. Competing at his first-ever Worlds, Ravi made a dream debut to earn his maiden title.

Playing in the men's 57kg category repechage, Ravi showed no mercy to the 2018 Asian Games bronze medallist and 2019 Asian Championship winner Reza Ahmadali as he romped to a 6-3 victory to secure the coveted bronze.

Dubbed to be a high octane encounter right from the start, the first period of the bout saw a gritty defensive battle as Ravi displayed great technique against the Iranian and take a lead of 2-0. He had a good start to the second half as well as he snatched another 2 points to lead 4-1 over Reza. Then, with 10 seconds remaining, he claimed two more points by turning defence into attack swiftly and sealed the win!

Ravi had initially looked in superb form when he started his campaign yesterday. In the first round, he completed a technical superiority win (11-0) over Sunggwon Kim of Korea within the first period of the bout. However, in the pre-quarters, he had his task cut out.

Ravi, who won the silver medal at the U-23 World Championships last year, was trailing 0-4 down within the first couple of minutes to Arsen Harutyunyan of Armenia. Soon, it the score read 0-6 in favour of Armenian. However, after that, the Indian took complete control of the bout and snatched 17 points with a couple of impressive ankle locks and takedowns. Eventually, he beat Arsen 17-6 to move to the quarters. With his win, Ravi joined the list of Indian wrestlers, including Vinesh Phoghat and Bajrang Punia to win berths at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The impressive youngster, however, lost in his semifinal bout against defending world champion Zaur Uguev of Russia 4-6.

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