NEW DELHI, July 23: Unheralded Atish Todkar caused a huge upset by knocking out Olympic silver medallist Ravi Dahiya with a sensational ‘pin’ but it was unflappable Aman Sehrawat, who won the 57kg trials to qualify for the Asian Games here Sunday.
It was not just the shock result but the manner in which Maharashtra’s Todkar went about his business against the decorated Ravi Dahiya that created a flutter at the IG Stadium early in the day.
The scorecard reading an unbelievable 20-8 and a ‘win by fall’ for diminutive Todkar left the spectators, the coaches, the referees, everyone present inside the main hall, stunned. The fast and furious Todkar consistently dodged Dahiya by moving swiftly from under his arms to move back for take-down moves.
Dahiya had a small 6-4 lead going into the second period but from there it was one-way traffic. Two consecutive takedowns and a four-pointer from the edge of the mat that Todkar pulled off had rattled Dahiya. Using all his might, Dahiya went all out for a pin but Todkar wriggled out and got himself into a position from where he had his opponent’s shoulders on the mat.
Dahiya’s support staff team said he had recently recovered from a knee injury and lacked mat-time to be performing at his best.
“Ravi had suffered both ACL and MCL tears in his right knee on February 6. We started training early April and he began practising full throttle about 10 days back. He needed competition and lack of it, hurt him,” Dr. Munesh Kumar, who looked after Dahiya’s rehabilitation told. After ousting Dahiya and Naveen (7-3), Todkar later lost to Rahul by technical superiority in the semifinal.
Todkar could not do much against Rahul, who successfully employed the move after taking a 4-0 lead to end the bout early in the second period. Aman Sehrawat, the Asian champion, was a bit wobbly at the start with Rahul Aware scoring an impressive four-pointer against him but the calm and composed Chhatrasal trainee remained unperturbed to win 9-6.
He followed that up with wins by technical superiority against Ankit and Shubham. In the final too, he remained his self with his speed, technique and strategy pushing him to an easy win. (PTI)
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