Ravi Dahiya’s calm nature, willingness to learn and a no-nonsense attitude at the akhada should further brighten the wrestler’s prospects of going a step further and clinching gold in Paris 2024, feels coach Satpal Singh, who has given the country Olympic medallists like Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt.

Satpal, the 1982 Asian Games gold-medallist and twice winner of the Commonwealth Wrestling Championship, has been a guiding force for Dahiya too, having trained him since he was only 11 years old.

Dissecting Dahiya’s loss in the final to ROC (Russian Olympic Committee)’s Zavur Uguev, Satpal feels the 23-year-old made a tactical error.

“Prayaas usne kaafi kiya, kaafi koshish kii usne. But the mistake Ravi made was trying to attack his opponent from the front instead of doing so from sideways,” the 66-year-old coach told The Telegraph on Thursday. “Had he tried to attack from the side, he could have been successful. Besides, whenever he did so, he won points.

“While trying to attack from the front, he also lost time and that worked to his opponent’s favour. You also need a good coach, especially to point out these small things.

“Having said that, Ravi has come up from the junior level and is still only 23. So by the time the next Olympics begin, he will be perfect,” Satpal emphasised. Sending Dahiya to Russia for further training ahead of the Olympics also contributed to his securing silver, he said.

Dahiya doesn’t come from a well-to-do family, yet Satpal considers him to be fortunate. “His parents, in spite of the odds, managed to get the required amount of milk, curd and butter, as I would tell them to, to ensure he gained strength.”

His son-in-law Sushil too had a role to play behind Dahiya’s growth and success. “Sushil actually had brought him to me. His parents had a lot of faith in Sushil, who also had worked very hard to help Ravi progress,” Satpal pointed out.