Aman Sehrawat Wins Bronze In Wrestling, Sixth Medal For India In Paris 2024
At 21, Sehrawat is the youngest Indian to win an individual medal at the Olympics.
Wrestler Aman Sehrawat bagged India's sixth medal in the Paris 2024 Olympics as he defeated Puerto Rico's Darian Cruz in the bronze-medal match of the men's freestyle 57kg wrestling on Friday night.
Sehrawat beat Cruz, a bronze medallist in the 2023 Pan American Games, by 13–5. This is India's first medal in wrestling in Paris 2024 after the heartbreaking disqualification of Vinesh Phogat two days ago.
India has so far bagged one silver, won by Neeraj Chopra, and five bronzes, including three in shooting and one in men's hockey. Currently, India is at the 66th position in the medal tally as of 11:55 p.m.
At 21, Sehrawat is the youngest Indian to win an individual medal at the Olympics. He is the only male wrestler from the country to qualify for Paris 2024. The grappler had won bronze in the 2022 Asian Games and gold in the 2022 Under-23 World Championships.
With the bronze, the country has won a total of eight medals so far in wrestling at the Summer Games. Earlier, Indian wrestlers had won five bronzes and two silvers, including Ravi Dahiya's second-place finish in the same event in Tokyo 2020.
Sehrawat had lost 0–10 to top seed Rei Higuchi of Japan in the semi-final. The 21-year-old had defeated former world champion and fourth seed Zelimkhan Abakarov of Albania in the quarterfinal and North Macedonia's Vladimir Egorov, a former European champion, in the round of 16, both via technical superiority.
A total of six wrestlers were part of the Indian contingent in Paris 2024, with Reetika Hooda set to start her campaign in the women's 76 kg event on Saturday.
