Paris Olympics: Aman Sehrawat moves to men's 57kg freestyle quarters; Anshu loses in women's wrestling

Paris: Aman Sehrawat advanced to the men's 57kg wrestling quarterfinal after beating European Championships gold medallist Vladimir Egorov of North Mcedonia at the Paris Olympics, here on Thursday.

Aman won his opening bout on technical superiority (10-0) with two minutes to go in the second period to secure his quarter-finals berth.

The Asian champion will face Albania’s Zelimkhan Abakarov, a world champion wrestler, in his quarterfinal bout, scheduled lated in the day.

Egorov, meanwhile, could make the repechage round if Aman makes the final.

Aman, besides Antim Panghal, is the only other Indian wrestler who has been seeded in his weight category. For the first time ever at the Olympics, there are seedings, with the top eight wrestlers in each weight class getting the opportunity.

The 20-year-old wrestler, who won the bronze medal at the Asian Games last year, has earned the Indian men’s wrestling contingent it’s very first quota for the 2024 Paris Olympics in the 57 kg freestyle category at the World Olympic Games Qualifiers.

In the world qualifiers, Aman secured a dominant technical superiority (12-2) victory over Chongsong Han in the quota match. He put on an impressive showing throughout the qualifiers as he beat Olympian Georgi Vangelov of Bulgaria 10-4 to move into the quarterfinals where he prevailed with a 12-2 win over Andrii Yatsenko of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, in the women's event, Anshu Malik, who is competing in her second Olympics, lost her opening bout 2-7 on points to Helen Louise Maroulis of the USA, a two-time Olympic medallist, in the 57kg pre-quarterfinal match.

However, Anshu, who is a first Indian women wrestler to win a silver medal at the World Championships (2021), still has a chance for a medal through repechage if the American wrestler makes the final.