Tokyo
The fourth seeded Indian was trailing 2-9 when Sanayev effected a few ''fitley'' (leg lace) moves to pull ahead but as the clocked ticked away, Dahiya regrouped and got hold of his rival with a double leg attack that resulted in a victory by fall.
Before this, Sushil Kumar was the only Indian to make the gold medal bout in 2012 London Games and settle for a silver.
The 23-year Dahiya had won both his previous bouts on technical superiority en route the final.
Dahiya outclassed Colombia's Tigreros Urbano (13-2) in his opener and then outwitted Bulgaria's Georgi Valentinov Vangelov (14-4).
KD Jadhav had become India's first wrestler and the first individual Olympic medalist to win a bronze at the 1952 Helsinki Games.
After that, Sushil enhanced wrestling''s profile by winning a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games and bettered the colour of the medal by claiming a historic silver in 2012 London Olympics.
That made Sushil India's only athlete with two individual Olympic medals for nine years, a feat that has now been matched by shuttler PV Sindhu.
In the same 2012 London Games, Yohesgwar Dutt won a bronze.
Sakshi Malik became the first Indian woman wrestler to win an Olympic medal when she took a bronze in the 2016 Rio Games.
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