Wrestler Aman Sehrawat won the bronze medal in the men’s 57 kg freestyle category at the Paris Olympics on Friday. Aman defeated Puerto Rico’s Darian Toi Cruz 13-5. Aman was behind in the beginning of the match but then he took the lead and never looked back. This is the first medal in wrestling for India at the Paris Olympics.
Earlier, India’s young wrestler Aman Sehrawat lost to Japan’s top seed Rei Higuchi in a one-sided semi-final. Rio Olympics silver medalist Japan’s experienced wrestler Higuchi easily won 10-0 by technical superiority within two minutes in the first round. Chhatrasal Akhara’s talented wrestler Aman had performed well in the pre-quarterfinals and quarterfinals. But he could not play aggressively 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 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 Championship gold medallist and the only male wrestler from the country to qualify for the Olympics, easily defeated Abakarov in the quarter-finals. He scored one point in the first round due to Abakarov’s ‘passivity’ and then two points from a ‘take down’.
The same situation prevailed for former world champion Abakarov in the second round after which the 21-year-old Indian wrestler tried to tie the leg (hold both legs and rotate them several times) and was successful. 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 he got in the end but the referee decided in favour of Aman and he got one more point.
Earlier, Aman reached the quarter-finals on the back of an impressive performance against North Macedonian opponent Vladimir Egorov. During the match, Aman looked very agile and kept his defense intact to win 10-0 on the basis of technical superiority over the former European champion.
In the first round, 29-year-old Egorov looked a bit troubled and had to seek medical attention for his knee after Aman’s all-out attack. Aman did not let his opponent make a comeback. Aman scored two more points by taking down and took a 10-0 lead even with two minutes left in the match.
Vinesh Phogat had raised medal hopes by winning consecutive matches but was disqualified before the final match after being found to be 100 grams overweight.
