Aman Sehrawat booked his Asian Games ticket the hard way but there was always a question whether he would be as good as Ravi Dahiya, Olympic silver medalist and the man who rules in his weight category. On October 6, the 20-year old proved he was with a bronze in the 57kg here that stood out among the three India won in wrestling on the day for Aman’s resilience and determination.
At the other end of the spectrum was reigning champion Bajrang Punia in the 65kg, returning to competitive action after 13 months while being in the spotlight for a large part of 2023 for non-competitive reasons, who went down 10-0 to Japan’s Kaiki Yamagushi in the bronze-medal match with 89 seconds still left on the clock. Clearly out of depth on the mat, Bajrang looked spent even before the bout ended, buried his face into the mat after it was over and walked away without speaking to anyone, looking dejected.
Aman, though, proved he was here to fight. A 6-1 win against South Korea’s Sunggwon Kim in the pre-quarterfinals set him up against Ebrahim Khari of Iran in the last eight and it looked to be all over for the youngster when trailing 1-8 in the first round itself. Khari effected two take downs for a 4-1 lead as Aman struggled to get his defences right, then got one more to make it 8-1. Aman closed the gap to 3-8 at the end of the round but no one could have predicted the turnaround in the second 3-minute period.
