PARIS:WrestlerAman Sehrawatwon India’s sixth medal of the Paris Olympics 2024. The 21-year-old defeated Puerto Rico’s Toi Darian Cruz 13-5 to clinch the bronze in the 57kg freestyle category. He dedicated the medal to the nation for “all the love and support”.
Fifth seed Sehrawat’s medal brought smiles back to the wrestling contingent after Vinesh Phogat was disqualified from the 50kg gold medal match for being “100 grams overweight”.
Sehrawat is the youngest Indian to win an Olympic medal at 21 years 0 months and 24 days. Shuttler PV Sindhu won an Olympic medal at 21 years 4 months in Rio 2016.
“My coach and I didn’t sleep the whole night. Till 3 am we were training so that my weight was in control,” said Sehrawat, adding that he had gained “almost five kilos” after his semi-final bout on Thursday evening against Japan’s Rei Higuchi which the Indian lost. Higuchi went on to defeat Spencer Richard Lee of the USA to clinch the gold medal.
Sehrawat was the only Indian male who qualified for Paris 2024. On his Olympic debut, the 2022 world U-23 champion scored some impressive wins to make the semi-finals.
He had scored an emphatic win against Vladimir Egorov of North Macedonia and then eliminated Zelimkhan Abakarov of Albania to set up a semi-final clash against Higuchi. Sehrawat lost to a technically superior Higuchi, the Rio 2016 silver medallist, 10-0.
On Friday, Diaz scored the first points but the Indian was quick to bounce back. Sehrawat defended his legs very well and scored points consistently to end the first period 6-3. The 29-year-old Diaz, a 2023 Pan American bronze winner, looked tired as the match wore on. Sehrawat scored easy points to seal the victory (13-5). “My responsibility as a wrestler has now increased. I now want to win a gold medal in 2028 at Los Angeles and a third in Brisbane (2032). I want to better Sushil Kumar’s double Olympic medal record,” said Sehrawat.