Paris Olympics 2024: Aman Sehrawat enters 57kg semis as India's wrestling gold medal hopes rejuvenated

India’s Aman Sehrawat has entered the 57kg freestyle wrestling semifinal rejuvenating the nation’s hopes for a gold medal at the Paris Olympics 2024 on Thursday (Aug 8). Sehrawat, who started his campaign on Thursday registered a one-sided win over Zelimkhan Abakarov of Armenia where he won by technical superiority. He will now compete for a place in the final and will be at least guaranteed a bronze medal match. The result comes a day after India’s Vinesh Phogat was disqualified from the women’s 50kg freestyle competition.

2 fantastic bouts from Aman Sehrawat as he overpowers his opponents 10-0 and 12-0 to make his way into the semi finals. He will be in action at 9.45 pm IST next. #JeetKiAur | #Cheer4Bharat pic.twitter.com/th4gL3UdrL — Team India (@WeAreTeamIndia) August 8, 2024

Sehrawat in semis

Having had hard luck in the women’s 50kg category after Vinesh’s disqualification, India’s hopes were rejuvenated after he won back-to-back bouts. He started with an R16 win against Vladimir Egorov with a 10-0 win. The 10-point lead meant that the Indian grappler advanced on technical superiority into his quarterfinal bout. The quarterfinal bout was also not different as he put his opponent to the mat with a 12-0 lead. The lead again meant that Sehrawat advanced to the semis with technical superiority and did not need to fight for an entire six minutes.

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The victoryalso means he will be a win away from ensuring a medal for India at the Paris Olympics. A win in the semis will at least guarantee him a silver medal, meaning India will continue its tradition of winning at least one medal in wrestling in the last five Olympics. In 2008 Sushilkumar won a bronze medal and upgraded it to silver in the 2012 London Games along Yogeshwar Dutt. In the 2016 Rio Olympics, Sakshi Malik clinched a bronze while Ravi Dahiya won a silver medal in the Tokyo Olympics.

Sehrawat will take to the mat later in the day when he battles for a place in the final. The Indian wrestler will face Rei Higuchi of Japan in the last four. A defeat for Sehrawat will see him fight for a bronze medal match while he will also have an opportunity to fight in the repechage round in case he loses the bronze medal match.