Asian Wrestling Championships 2023: Aman Sehrawat wins India’s first gold medal at Astana
The wrestler topped the podium in the 57kg category to make it India’s fourth straight gold in the division at the continental event.
Wrestling
Freestyle wrestler Aman Sehrawat clinched India’s first gold medal at the Asian Wrestling Championships 2023 in Astana, Kazakhstan on Thursday.
Aman Sehrawat, who became the first Indian wrestler to win gold at the U-23 world championships in Spain last year, topped the podium in the men’s 57kg freestyle category on the penultimate day of the competition.
The Indian wrestler opened with a 7-1 win over Japan’s Rikuto Arai in the quarter-finals. In the semi-final bout, Aman Sehrawat got the better of China’s Zou Wanhao by a 7-4 scoreline.
In the final, Aman Sehrawat defeated Kyrgyzstan's Almaz Smanbekov, a bronze medallist from last year, 9-4 to win the gold medal.
“I came here for the gold. There was no other ranking position I wanted to settle for,” Aman Sehrawat said after the final win. “I made two mistakes in the final. I did watch Almaz's bouts before the final and figured that he relies a lot on counters. But I rushed to score. I thought to myself that I don't get tired easily so I kept trying to score. In the process, I got countered twice. After that, I put my head down and focused.”
This was Aman Sehrawat’s second podium of the year. He had won bronze at the Zagreb Open back in January.
Aman Sehrawat’s victory in Astana ensured the men’s freestyle 57kg gold medal stayed with India for the fourth year running. Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Ravi Kumar Dahiya won the category in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Ravi Dahiya had pulled out of this year’s Asian championships with an injury and Aman Sehrawat replaced the Olympic medallist in the Indian contingent after earning his spot through selection trials.
Incidentally, Ravi Dahiya, too, had defeated Japan’s Rikuto Arai in his opening bout of the 2022 edition.
Among the other Indian wrestlers, Deepak (79kg) won bronze while Deepak Nehra (97kg) lost his bronze medal match.
Deepak defeated Shuhrat Bozorov of Tajikistan in the bronze medal match with a 12-1 scoreline while Deepak Nehra lost his medal bout by a 12-9 margin to Makhsud Veysalov of Uzbekistan.
Meanwhile, Anuj Kumar (65kg) and Mulayam Yadav (70kg) lost in the quarter-finals and the repechage rounds, respectively.
With the two freestyle medals India’s tally rose to 13 in the competition. The Greco-Roman wrestlers won four medals while the women’s wrestlers bagged seven.