Wrestler Aman Sehrawat won a bronze medal in the men’s 57 kg freestyle category at the Paris Olympics on Friday. Aman defeated Darian Toi Cruz of Puerto Rico 13-5. Aman was behind in the beginning of the match but then he took the lead and did not look back. This is the first medal in wrestling for India in the Paris Olympics.
Earlier, India’s young wrestler Aman Sehrawat had lost to top seed Rei Higuchi of Japan in a one-sided semi-final. Japan’s experienced wrestler Higuchi, the Rio Olympics silver medalist, registered an easy 10-0 victory by technical superiority within two minutes in the first round. Chhatrasal Akhara’s talented wrestler Aman had performed strongly in the pre-quarterfinals and quarterfinals. But could not show aggressive game against Higuchi and could not score even a single point. Aman had won the first two matches of the men’s 57 kg freestyle category of the Paris Olympics by technical superiority.
After winning the medal, Neeraj gave tension to the fans, he may have to undergo surgery soon.
Aman, the Asian Championships gold medalist and the country’s only male wrestler to qualify for the Olympics, had an easy win over Abakarov in the quarter-finals. In the first round, Abakarov scored one point due to ‘passivity’ and then two points due to ‘take down’.
Former world champion Abakarov was in the same condition in the second round too, after which the 21-year-old young wrestler from India tried to tie the feet (holding both the legs and rotating them several times) and also succeeded. In this way he scored eight consecutive points and won by technical superiority by scoring more than 10 points. But Abakarov challenged the two points awarded in the end but the referee decided in favor of Aman, giving him one more point.
Earlier, Aman reached the quarter-finals on the back of an impressive performance against North Macedonia’s rival Vladimir Egorov. Aman looked very agile during the match and maintained his defense and won 10-0 on the basis of technical proficiency over the former European champion.
The 29-year-old Egorov looked a little troubled in the first round and had to seek medical attention for his knee after an ‘all out’ attack from Aman. Aman did not allow the opponent to return. Aman scored two more points with a ‘takedown’ and took a 10-0 lead with two minutes left in the match.
Vinesh Phogat had raised hopes of a medal by winning consecutive matches but was disqualified after being found 100 grams overweight before the final match.
