Credit: X
India’s Aman Sehrawat won a gold medal in the 57 kg category of men’s singles event at the Zagreb Open 2024 and kicked off his new year on a champion’s note. The 20-year-old wrestler took down China’s Zou Wanhao 10-0 by technical superiority in the final. The Indian wrestler, who is currently ranked 13th in the world maintained his dominance over his Chinese counterpart right from the beginning. Sehrawat didn’t leave room for any error and wrapped up the fight with a minute and eight seconds left on the clock.
Sehrawat had come off a win over Muhammet Karavus of Turkey in the qualification round. During the fight, the Indian grappler was trailing 0-4 against his counterpart but turned it around to end up as winner 15-4. After his win over Wanhao, his coach Lalit Kumar said, “There weren’t many tournaments in the last few months but we didn’t stop working even for a day. The entire time was used to improve his starts.”
Kumar, who was conferred with the Dronacharya Award recently, added, “It took some time to drill the idea in his mind that if he wants to be at the Olympics and win a medal, he can’t be dheela even for a second on the mat.” Sehrawat, who is often touted as India’s next big name, can end up in a potential showdown with Tokyo Olympics 2020 silver medalist Ravi Dahiya at the selection trials next month for the Olympics 2024 berth.
In other matches, India’s Deepak Punia lost his qualification round bout 2-6 to Azamat Dauletbekov of Kazakhstan in the men’s 86kg. Later, Punia won his first round repechage 4-1 against Ukraine’s Valentyn Babii. Another Indian wrestler, Yash, lost 0-10 by technical superiority to USA’s Quincy Miles Monday in the Round of 16 of men’s 74kg.
