Young Indian wrestler Aman Sehrawat lost to top seed Rei Higuchi of Japan in a one-sided semifinal here on Thursday after winning the first two matches of the men’s 57 kg freestyle category of Paris Olympics by technical superiority and will now play the bronze medal match. Rio Olympics silver medalist Japanese veteran wrestler Higuchi easily won 10-0 by technical superiority in the first round itself.
Aman, a talented wrestler from Chhatrasal Akhara, 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. Now he will face Darian Toi Cruz of Puerto Rico in the bronze medal match on Friday at 10.45 pm. Aman raised the country’s medal hopes in wrestling by reaching the semi-finals with a technical superiority (12-0) win over Albania’s Zelimkhan Abakarov in the quarterfinals.
Asian Championship gold medallist and the country’s only male wrestler to qualify for the Olympics, Aman easily defeated Abakarov in the quarter-finals. In the first round, he got one point due to Abakarov’s ‘passivity’ and then two points through ‘take down’. The same was the case with former world champion Abakarov in the second round, after which India’s 21-year-old young wrestler tried to tie the feet (hold both the 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 last two points but the referee decided in favor of Aman, giving him one more point. Earlier, Aman reached the quarter-finals due to an impressive performance against North Macedonian opponent Vladimir Egorov.
Aman looked very agile during the match and kept his defense intact and won 10-0 on the basis of technical proficiency over the former European champion. In the first round, 29-year-old Egorov looked a bit troubled and had to take medical treatment for his knee after Aman’s ‘all out’ attack. Aman did not let his opponent make a comeback. Aman scored two more points by ‘takedown’ and took a 10-0 lead even when there were two minutes left in the match.
Anshu Malik loses in women’s 57 kg event, now hopes for repechage: Indian female wrestler Anshu Malik lost 2-7 to her more experienced two-time Olympic medalist and fifth seed Helen Lucy Maroulis in the pre-quarterfinals of the 57 kg freestyle event. Anshu, who is participating in her second Olympics, will have to hope that Maroulis reaches the final to play in the repechage.
In the first round, America’s Rio Olympics gold medal and Tokyo Olympics bronze medal winner wrestler Maroulis dominated from the beginning and gained the lead. Anshu looked quite defensive in this, but she did not let this world famous wrestler score more points. In the second round as well, three-time world champion Maroulis continued the same performance and scored five points and despite getting a warning, registered a win, while Anshu, who was trying to make a comeback, could score only two points.
