Aman Sehrawat lost to Japan's Rei Higuchi in the semifinal of the men's 57kg category at the Paris Olympics on Thursday. Despite the loss, Aman still has a shot at making the podium as he will compete in the bronze medal playoff against Puerto Rico's Darian Toi Cruz on Friday.
Higuchi, the silver medallist from the 2016 Olympics and former world champion, was always going to be a tough opponent. Aman had looked dominant in his initial two bouts but was no match to Higuchi's lightning-quick attacks.
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Within seconds of the start, Higuchi latched onto Aman's left arm and threw him over his shoulder for four points. There was nothing Aman could have done to evade that -- Higuchi was too clinical. The Japanese went for a gut wrench soon after but Aman did well to find his way out of it. It was the first time he had to defend on Thursday and he wasn't given time to adjust to Higuchi's pace.
The 2022 World champion dived at Aman's right leg and inflicted the takedown to make it 6-0 just a little over a minute into the bout. Aman's defence came to the fore again as he used all his strength to stop Higuchi from pinning him, but it merely delayed the inevitable as Higuchi latched onto Aman's right leg once again and rolled him over again with a gut wrench to close out the contest. A win by technical superiority inside three minutes.
Aman came into the semifinal as the outright underdog, but his win over Albania's Zelimkhan Abakarov served as a massive boost -- and a chance to get revenge for the thrashing he received when the two last met at the 2023 World Championships. He did just that, locking Abakarov's ankles and rolling him four times to win by technical superiority inside two minutes.
What Aman did was stick to his strengths: attack. It's how he has always approached the sport; he takes pride in his lightning-quick footwork and all-out attacking maneuvers, which were on display against Abakarov.
Aman's first bout of the session against Macedonia's Vladimir Egorov was a similar affair. Aman came to Paris as the youngest freestyle wrestler in the 2024 Olympics and it was his first bout at such a level. There was no sign of nerves; he dictated the bout from start to finish and pulled off four single-leg takedowns enroute the win.
Aman is the sole male wrestler from India at the Olympics and his performance in the first two bouts Paris justified his tagging as the biggest name in Indian wrestling today. Ironically, he is in Paris at the cost of his mentor, Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Ravi Dahiya -- they are in the same weight category and only one could go to the Games.
A product of the Chhatrasal Stadium academy -- from where all of India's recent Olympic medallists have emerged -- which he joined at age 10, he made his debut at the senior level in February 2022, has fought in 42 bouts since and won 33 of them for a winning percentage of 78.5%.
He will have a chance to seal his 34th win in two years, which will be his career's biggest win when he takes on Cruz for the bronze medal at 11:10 PM on Friday.