Aman Sehrawat clinches gold medal in men’s 57kg at Asian Wrestling Championships

India’s promising wrestler Aman Sehrawat clinched the gold medal at the Senior Asian Wrestling Championships being held in Astana, Kazakhstan. On Thursday, Sehrawat outplayed Almaz Smanbekov of Kyrgyzstan 9-4 to win India’s first gold medal of the competition.

At the 2022 edition of the continental championships held in Mongolia, India’s Olympic silver medalist Ravi Dahiya won gold. Dahiya has been out of competition as he has been recovering from knee surgery.

Sehrawat, the U23 World champion, continued India’s tradition in the 57kg of the Astana Asian Wrestling Championships, by giving a good account of his performance.

In the gold medal bout, Sehrawat had a slender 3-2 lead in the opening three minutes, but kept on pressing hard in the second period of three minutes to exhaust Smanbekov and win the gold with a score of 9-4.

India’s second medal of the day came in the men’s 79kg. Deepak Kukna beat Shuhrat Bozorov of Tajikistan 12-1 to win bronze.

Deepak Nehra went down fighting in the bronze medal match against Makhaud Veysalov Uzbestan in 97kg. The Indian lost 9-12 points.

There was hope of a medal in the men’s 65kg, but Anuj Kumar lost in the quarterfinals to Umidjon Jalolov of Uzbekistan 10-0.

In the previous edition of the Asian Championships held in Mongolia, India's Bajrang Punia claimed silver in the men's 65kg. Punia skipped the national selection trials for the continental competition. Iran's Rahman Mousa Amouzadkhaili defended his 65kg title by scoring a narrow 3-1 win over Tulga Tumur Ochir of Mongolia.

India's Mulayam Yadav also missed out on the bronze medal match as he lost 4-14 in a repechage of 70kg against Japan’s Yoshinosuke Aoyagi.

Friday is the last day of the continental competition.