Kazakhstan's Nurislam Sanayev, left, bites India's Kumar Ravi as compete during the men's 57kg Freestyle semifinal wrestling match at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021, in Chiba, Japan
Nine years after Sushil Kumar's historic silver in the London Olympics, Ravi Dahiya became the second Indian wrestler to reach the final at the Games when he pinned Kazakhstan's Nurislam Sanayev in the 57kg semifinal bout. With the win, Dahiya assured India of a fourth medal as he stormed into the gold-medal match.
But when the entire nation rejoiced at his sensational comeback from 2-9 down to win via 'victory by fall', a crucial part of the final seconds of the match went unnoticed.
During the final minute of the game, when Dahiya was still trailing 5-9, Sanayev was spotted biting the Indian on his arm when he had pinned him down. The incident is clearly visible in the video shared by Sony Sports on their YouTube platform.
Dahiya was next face reigning world champion Russian Zavur Uguev to whom he had lost in the 2019 World Championship semifinals on Thursday for the gold medal.
Dahiya will aim to become the fifth Indian wrestler to win an Olympic medal.
KD Jadhav had become India's first wrestler and also the first individual Olympic medallist when he won a bronze during the 1952 Helsinki Games.
After that, Sushil Kumar enhanced wrestling's profile by winning a bronze at 2008 Beijing Games and bettered the colour of the medal by claiming a historic silver in 2012 at London Olympics that made him India's only athlete with two individual Olympic medals for nine years.
