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Ravi Dahiya to make injury comeback this week
The Tokyo Olympics silver medallist will compete in Grand Prix De France in the 61kg category
Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Ravi Dahiya will make a comeback from injury at the Grand Prix De France starting from Saturday.
Dahiya was missing from action last year due to a knee injury. Having suffered an injury in February during a sparring session, Dahiya was diagnosed with ACL and MCL injuries on his right knee. He made an attempt to return to the mat after rehab but failed to recover and lost the Asian Games trials in July. With pain increasing, Dahiya underwent surgery in July in Mumbai and missed the Asian Games and the World Championships — the latter doubled up as Paris Olympics qualifiers.
After six months of rehab, Dahiya has returned to mat training and is ready for the year's first competition.
"He has started mat training and sparring sessions and everything seems good with his recovery. Now we will wait and see how he does in a tournament. That will give us a better indication of how his body is feeling. It will take a few competitions to get back into the groove. He has been missing mat action for a long time," said coach Lalit Kumar.
Dahiya is currently training in Michigan, US along with Deepak Punia and a sparring partner from where he will travel to France for the competition.
"He will be competing in 61kg in this tournament. Once we test him in a competition he will reduce weight and get back to the Olympic weight category — 57kg," added Lalit, the coach from Chhatrasal Stadium who was recently honoured with the Dronacharya award.
Dahiya is also keen to compete in the Senior National Championships that will be held in Jaipur from February 2-5. It will be an important year with the Asian Olympic Qualifier in Kyrgyzstan from April 19-21 and the World Olympic Qualifiers in Turkey from May 9-12 where Olympic berths will be up for grabs.
In 57kg, Dahiya will have competition from young Aman Sehrawat who has been impressive and won the ranking series in Zagreb recently.
