How Ravi Kumar Dahiya pulled off a Sakshi Malik performance at the Tokyo Olympics?

Remember the bronze medal match in wrestling at the Rio Olympics when Sakshi Malik became the first female wrestler from India to win an Olympic medal. If you even don't, no need to worry because we will recall the moment as we saw a similar performance today with our male superstar wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya at the Tokyo Olympics.

Sakshi Malik was against Kyrgyzstan's Aisuluu Tynbekova who dominated the first half of the bronze medal match taking the initial lead of 5-0. India hadn't won a single medal at the Rio Olympics and it was looking that Sakshi would not be able to turn that result around. But what we saw in the next 3 minutes of the match was something unbelievable.

The then 23-year old from Rohtak overturned the deficit to script a historic 8-5 performance to win the first medal for India at the Rio Olympics. A display of never-say-die attitude and the fighting spirit of Malik was on show as she won the encounter. Let's refresh our memory with this nerve-wracking contest.

Fortunately, we saw something similar today on our screens as Ravi Kumar Dahiya defeated N. Sanayev of Kazakhstan in the semi-final match at the Tokyo Olympics. Also being 23-years old, he is now the contender for the first gold medal for India in the Summer Games 2020.

But the story was difficult for Ravi as he trailed with a score of 9-2 with a little over a minute to play for and it was looking all over for him. The dream of a first gold medal finish was slowly dying as Ravi turned the tables. Dahiya made a sensational move to gain some quick points and soon it was 9-7 before the Sonipat wrestler pinned the Kazakh's grappler to win the match and enter into the finals of men's freestyle 57kg in wrestling. Let's rejoice the moment as Dahiya plays the finals on Thursday.

Both the wrestlers have made India proud of their comeback. Both aged 23 at the time of playing the Olympics have turned around matches to assure India of a medal. While Sakshi bagged the bronze, Ravi will be in the running for a gold on Thursday.