Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: With an aggressive and attacking performance, Aman Sehrawat lifted the gloom over the Indian contingent over Vinesh Phogat’s disqualification by bagging a bronze medal in men’s 57 kg freestyle category on August 9.
Sehrawat scored a dominating 13-5 win over Puerto Rico’s Darian Cruz to revive what could only be described as a super show for him. In the process, Sehrawat became the youngest ever individual Olympic medallist from India at 21 years 0 months and 24 days. He betters PV Sindhu’s record, who was 21 years 1 month and 14 days old when she won silver at the Rio Olympics 2016.
Just when it looked like Indian wrestlers would return empty-handed from the Olympics for the first time since 2008,
This marks India’s sixth medal at the Paris Olympics with the country securing one silver and five bronze medals so far. Sehrawat, the lone male wrestler in the contingent, lost the first point of the bout after stepping out of the mat but came back strongly and took the 6-3 lead at the end of the first round despite being 2-3 down at one point.
In the second round, Sehrawat was riding high on confidence and never looked like he was letting go of his comfortable lead and ended up winning the bout 13-5. The 21-year-old Sehrawat joined K.D Jadhav (bronze 1952), Sushil Kumar (bronze 2008, silver 2012), Yogeshwar Dutt (bronze 2012), Sakshi Malik (bronze 2016), Ravi Dahiya (silver 2020) and Bajrang Punia (bronze 2020) as the Indian wrestlers to win medals in the Olympic Games so far.
This is the sixth medal won by wrestlers from the Chhatrasal Stadium in Delhi which is a major hub of wrestling activity in India.
