Aman Sehrawat secures Paris 2024 Olympic quota; Deepak Punia exits

Sehrawat, the U23 world champion, secured India's sixth wrestling quota for the Paris 2024 Olympics by defeating Chongsong Han of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea 12-2 in the semi-final.

Istanbul: Asian champion Aman Sehrawat secured a Paris 2024 quota for India in the men’s 57kg freestyle category at the World Wrestling Olympic Qualifiers in Istanbul, Turkey on Saturday.

Sehrawat, a U23 world champion, beat Chongsong Han of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea 12-2 in the semi-final for India’s sixth quota in wrestling for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

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However, this was India’s first Paris 2024 quota in men’s freestyle wrestling. All of the previous five quotas were obtained by the Indian women wrestlers.

The Istanbul meet is the final opportunity for wrestlers to obtain a quota for the upcoming Summer Games. Three Paris Olympic quotas are on offer in each weight class.

The two finalists in each division will obtain Paris Olympic quotas for their respective countries. The third spot, meanwhile, will go to the winner of the playoff bout between the two bronze medallists in the weight class.

In the earlier rounds, the 20-year-old Sehrawat beat Olympian Georgi Vangelov of Bulgaria 10-4 on the back of five takedowns to move into the quarter-finals. He then set up a bout for quota with a 12-2 win over Andriy Yatsenko of Ukraine.

“I slept last night knowing that I just have to fight for six minutes today. Whether you win or lose is a different matter. I just wanted to do my fight,” Aman said as quoted by the Olympics.com

Deepak Punia, meanwhile, missed out on a quota in the 86kg. The Asian Games silver medallist went down to China’s Zushen Lin 6-4 despite leading 3-0 at one stage in his first bout.

Zushen Lin was later ousted in the quarter-finals, ending Deepak Punia’s hopes for an Olympic quota via repechage route. The Indian wrestler had narrowly missed out on a medal at the Tokyo Olympics after finishing fifth.