Indian wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya won his third successive gold medal at the Asian Wrestling Championship held at in Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia on Saturday.
This is his third straight gold after Delhi in 2020 and Almaty in 2021.
Dahiya won with a dominating performance in the 57 kg category, winning the title clash by technical superiority against Kazakhstan's Rakhat Kalzhan.
Ravi was 0-2 down against Kalzhan. However, the determined Indian came back spectacularly to establish an 8-2 lead, which included three superb takedowns and a flip.
He affected six consecutive two-pointers and in-between saved himself from a left-leg attack to finish the bout early in the second period to secure India's first gold medal of the tournament this year.
Earlier, Ravi recorded comprehensive wins over Japan’s Rikuto Arai (15-4) in the quarterfinals and former Asian silver medallist Zanabazar Zandanbud (12-5) in the semifinals to enter the title clash.
Meanwhile, announcing his feat in Twitter, Dahiya wrote, “I'm pleased to inform you that I've won third consecutive GOLD for my country at the Asian Championship 2022. I'd want to express my gratitude to my coaches, my family, WFI, my friends, my well wishers, and my entire support team, this would'nt have been possible without them.”
On the other hand, olympic bronze medallist Bajrang Punia (65kg) and Gourav Baliyan (79kg) took silver medals, while Naveen (70kg) and Satyawart Kadian (97kg) picked up bronze as India collected five medals on day one of men's freestyle bouts.
