Aman Sehrawat: From darkness to blaze of bronze at Paris Olympics

Younger wrestler Aman beats Cruz to clinch sixth medal for India
PARIS: Aman Sehrawat is simply 21 however mature means past his age. He has been to hell and again.
He misplaced each his mother and father when he was simply 11 years previous. His mom took her personal life after battling psychological sickness for years. His father additionally died quickly after. Aman battled despair and tried to take medicine to overlook his ache.He was in a darkish place. However his uncle Sudhir Sehrawat was a pillar of assist. He backed his nephew to focus on his wrestling profession, take his thoughts off adverse ideas. His grandfather Mangeram additionally motivated him.

Impressed by Olympian Sushil Kumar‘s exploits, Aman had joined Chhatrasal Stadium in Delhi two years earlier than his father handed away. Together with his uncle holding his hand now, life modified. Aman discovered peace on the mat. He had a mission in life. He made regular progress, stored reaching new milestones and made newspaper headlines when he turned the primary Indian to win a gold medal at U-23 World Wrestling Championship.
On Friday night, on the Champs de Mars stadium, a makeshift area proper subsequent to the Eiffel Tower, Aman took on Puerto Rico’s Darian Cruz within the 57kg freestyle bronze medal match, a weight class during which Ravi Dahiya had gained silver for India in Tokyo.
Aman dominated his seasoned 29-yearold rival, a three-time medallist on the Pan American Video games. After an preliminary contest, he gained comfortably at 13-5. The bronze medal was India’s, the nation’s fifth medal on the Video games right here.
Within the first interval, Cruz took the lead by grabbing Aman’s left leg and pushing him out of the orange circle. 1-0. Aman tried laborious to attract stage and went up 2-1 quickly as he pinned Cruz to the mat. Cruz returned the praise to go 3-2 up.
It was very shut at this stage. However Aman began gaining confidence and began attacking extra, lunging at Cruz’s legs to get the essential factors. He managed to do this halfway via the interval, to get two factors for a 4-3 lead. The Puerto Rican gave the impression to be tiring now and simply earlier than the hooter, Aman bought a superb grip, Cruz went right down to keep away from a takedown and Aman was 6-3 forward.

Within the second interval, Cruz got here again decided and bought two factors. Aman was only a level forward at 6-5 now. It may have gone both means, however Aman was not giving up. He took two factors to go 8-5 forward. There have been simply two minutes left for the ultimate hooter. He was wanting in management.
At this level, Cruz opted for a break, pointing to his left knee. He was making an attempt to catch his breath towards the younger Indian. After the medical help, Cruz was again on the mat, wanting a bit drained. Aman noticed that and went in for the kill. His technique was easy. He attacked his rival by grabbing his leg, forcing him to go down after which bought on prime for 2 factors.

With a minute and seven seconds to go, it was 10-5. With simply 45 seconds left, it turned 12-5. There was no means Cruz was coming again. Aman secured one other level to emerge a simple winner and ran to his coach to have fun his medal.
Hailing from village Birohar in Haryana’s Jhajjar district, Aman had a eager curiosity in mud wrestling as a child. The transfer to the mat modified his life.
The 21-year-old, the lone Indian within the males’s part, had a superb outing on Thursday right here, posting two huge wins to race via the pre-quarters and quarterfinals of the 57kg freestyle.
Within the quarterfinals, Sehrawat was up towards Albania’s Zelimkhan Abakarov. The decision was 12-0 within the Indian’s favour as he rattled up the factors over the 2 intervals. He had misplaced to Akabarov on the senior World Championships.

Aman misplaced to his Japanese opponent within the semifinals however returned on Friday to struggle for bronze. He was hungry, he was decided. He was the higher wrestler.
This medal would give some solace to India’s wrestling contingent which was in a shock after Vinesh’s disqualification. It got here as a much-needed balm.