The World and Olympic silver medalist will keep one eye on the other half of the field as he navigates a minefield of a draw at the World Championships on Friday. The reigning world champion Thomas Gilman of the US, who is considered a must-watch match during these championships, will be one of his main rivals and potentially the biggest hurdle between him and the gold.
In their careers, Gilman and Dahiya have never faced each other. That’s likely to change this weekend, barring an upset. Heading into the Paris Olympics, the two men are expected to take over the 57kg class – an open weight category that’s never seen a rivalry like this. I think they’re going to meet in the final on Saturday.
Expect a fast-paced, physical fight if that happens. In spite of the fact that they’ve never met, Dahiya and Gilman have one thing in common – they were both stopped by Zavur Uguev at the Tokyo Games. Gilman, who went on to win the bronze medal, lost by just one point to Uguev in the Round of 16. Then he beat Dahiya in the final.
Due to the absence of the Russian, the gold medal fight seems like a straight shoot-out between the Olympic silver and bronze medalists. Since the Tokyo Games, Gilman has started to look unstoppable while Dahiya bounced between 61 and 57kg weight classes.
Gilman won the gold medal at the World Championships last year in Oslo, which Dahiya skipped. Gilman has finished on top of the podium in the three tournaments he’s been playing – the Pan-American Championship, the Zouhaier Sghaier Ranking Series, and Final X, which determines the American team.
Gilman’s reputation as a brawler has led to him winning all these tournaments either by technical superiority or by pinning his opponent.Dahiya’s endurance against the aggressive American, who likes to physically impose himself on his opponents, will be tested to the limit.
In order to compete in tournaments, Dahiya has had a tough time cutting down to 57kg from his natural weight of 60-61 kilos.In the Yasar Dogu and Dan Kolov tournaments, he competed at 61kg, then cut down to 57 at the Asian Championship, where he won.
Putting weight management aside, Dahiya will have to battle through an extremely tricky field before he even thinks about Gilman if he wants to upgrade his 2019 World Championship silver to gold.The 57kg weight class is deep and tough, which is evident from his half of the draw.
It’ll be a tough opening matchup against Romania’s Razvan Marian Kovacs, making his senior World Championship debut, but from Dahiya’s perspective, it looks straightforward.Once he beats Kovacs, the 24-year-old will face Uzbekistan’s Gulomjon Abdullaev, who has almost beaten Dahiya and Gilman slayer Uguev in the past.
Dahiya will face Zelimkhan Abakarov of Albania if he survives his first big test.In the Don Kolov tournament in Bulgaria this year, only the Russian-born wrestler who switched nationalities to compete for Albania and won a freestyle World Cup gold medal defeated Dahiya.
Dahiya, once he gets past this hurdle, will face Japan’s Toshihiro Hasegawa or Germany’s Horst Lehr in the semifinal. Hasegawa and Lehr, along with Iran’s Alireza Sarlak, are the only contenders who could upset Dahiya and Gilman. Having Sarlak and Gilman on the same side of the draw should make for an exciting Iran vs USA matchup.
There are two strong contenders in Dahiya’s half. Hasegawa won the bronze medal in 61kg at last year’s Worlds and defeated Dahiya to win the U-23 World Championship last year. Gilman’s only loss in 2022 came at the ranking series tournament in Tunisia earlier this year.
During his training in Russia, Dahiya spent a month following in the footsteps of his mentor Sushil Kumar, an alumnus of Chhatrasal Stadium. Even he’s hoping to accomplish it by beating Gilman. Dahiya told UWW the bout will be good.“I also want to wrestle him (Gilman) in Belgrade because I really want to win a world championship.”
