Rama Krishna Sangem
Indian wrestler Aman Sehrawat won India’s sixth medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics after securing the bronze medal in the men’s 57kg freestyle wrestling event. Aman, who won his first two rounds by technical superiority, lost his semifinal bout against Japan’s Rei Higuchi via technical superiority on Thursday and was forced to compete in the bronze medal bout on Friday.
Aman won his bronze medal bout in dominant fashion against the repechage winner, Puerto Rico’s Darian Toi Cruz, by 13-5 to win India’s first wrestling medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. This is also India’s fifth bronze and sixth overall medal in Paris.
Earlier, Aman started his campaign with a comfortable win over North Macedonia’s Vladimir Egorov. Aman started offensively and had a 6-0 lead after the first round. He scored four more points in round two and won the bout by 10-0 via technical superiority in just 3 minutes and 59 seconds. In the quarterfinal bout, Aman faced former world champion Albania’s Zelimkhan Abakarov. Aman’s start was comparatively slow in the second bout, as he was leading 3-0 after the end of the first round. However, he picked up the pace in round two and scored 9 points in just 56 seconds to win the bout by 12-0. It was the second consecutive technical superiority win for the young Indian grappler.
Gold eludes India
However, Aman’s gold medal hopes were shattered after Japan’s Rei Higuchi gave Aman a taste of his own medicine and won the bout by technical superiority of 10-0 in just 2 minutes and 14 seconds, forcing Aman to take on the repechage round winner to secure a podium finish, which he eventually did.
Interestingly, Aman, who hails wrestler Ravi Dahiya as his idol, defeated him in the Indian wrestling trials to secure his place in the men’s 57kg event at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Notably, Ravi won the silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the same weight category.
As India’s bright gold hope, Neeraj Chopra finished silver, we may not get any gold medal in Paris Olympics now.
