Amit Kumar Dahiya is the youngest member of the Indian contingent. And he will return home with his head held high.
Amit Kumar Dahiya is the youngest member of the Indian contingent. And he will return home with his head held high. Despite failing to win a medal, this 18-year-old has won many a heart by the way he fought former world champion and Beijing Games bronze medallist Radoslav Marinov Velikov in the men’s freestyle 55kg bout on Friday evening.
The Delhi-based wrestler was a bit unlucky as his opponent got the “clinch” in both the rounds as tie-breaker was applied to break the deadlock.
Amit has no regrets about losing to two superior wrestlers — Vladimer Khinchegashvili of Georgia in the first round and then to the Bulgarian in repechage — but he believes that a little more international experience could do wonders for him.
“The Bulgarian wrestler hurt my left eye and I could not focus and fight properly,” said Amit, adding: “These experienced wrestlers do it deliberately because they don’t want any younger wrestler to give them a tough fight in the beginning rounds. They try and reserve the energy for the later rounds and that’s what he also did by hurting me early in the bout.”
Amit was also unlucky as on both counts the “clinch” advantage went to his Bulgarian opponent.
Amit, who got a bye in the first round, then defeated the former world junior champion Hassan Sabzali Rahimi of Iran in the pre-quarterfinals. “God willing, I have a long way to go. I have learnt a lot by fighting against some champion wrestlers here. Some of them were medallists in either the Olympics or World Championships. So the experience I gained is going to take me a long way,” Amit said.
The Delhi lad knows that it was a tough task to get out of the “clinch” and almost 99 per cent of the time the wrestler who gets the toss in his favour wins the period. But letting the Georgian score seven technical points was something he is not able to digest. “I thought I won the ‘clinch’ but the decision remained the same even after video review. What can I say other than that I was unlucky? But I will be lucky somewhere else,” he signed off.
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