Aman Sehrawat, the lone Indian male wrestler to qualify for Paris Olympics 2024
India will have six players in their contingent, that includes five women.
image for illustrative purpose
Aman Sehrawat will be the lone Indian male wrestler to compete at the Paris Olympics 2024. Aman is the only Indian wrestler to do well at the World Qualifiers tournament, the last qualification tournament for the Olympics.
In wrestling, India will have six players in their contingent and five of them are women. Vinesh Phogat (50 kg), Antim Panghal (53 kg), Anshu Malik (57 kg), Nisha Dahiya (68 kg) and Reetika Hooda (76 kg) along with Aman, have qualified for Paris Olympics 2024.
Apart from Aman, Sujeet Kalkal and Jaideep Ahlawat were also on the brink of qualification. Sujeet did well to progress to the bronze medal match in the 65 kg category, only to go down to the USA's Zain Allen Retherford, on criteria.
The duo were on level terms in skills but conceded a takedown on a counterattack to lose 2-2 on criteria.
Sujeet was the first to register points when he went for a counter-attack move on a takedown. His opponent was surprised and played catch up with the Indian as Sujeet seemed to call the shots. However, just when Sujeey looked for another takedown, it was his opponent who pulled off a good counter move and the Indian went down on the counterattack near the end of the circle.
Retherford then maintained the scoreline to walk out as the winner, ending India’s hopes of qualifying for the Olympics.
Along with Sujeet, India’s Bajrang Punia, who has been suspended for refusing to provide a sample for a dope test, will also not make it into the same category for the Paris Olympics.
Meanwhile, Jaideep Ahlawat started his campaign well in repechage when he got a win through technical superiority in his 74 kg round clash against Turkmenistan’s Arslan Amanmyradov.
In the bronze medal match, Jaideep, pitted against home favourite Soner Demirtas, lost the match 1-2 to send his and the country’s hopes of another Olympic qualification down.
Meanwhile, the onus is now on the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) to see if they hold a trial to pick the Indian team or will allow the quota winners to represent India at the Paris Olympics 2024.
The Olympics start on July 26.
