Young and restless

Istanbul, May 11

Aman Sehrawat lived up to the high expectations by locking the Paris Olympics quota in the men’s freestyle 57kg category but Deepak Punia was eliminated from the qualification race following his crushing first-round defeat at the world qualifiers here today.

Aman, the U23 world champion and senior Asian Championship title winner, was expected to put up a strong show and he did not disappoint.

The 20-year-old, who trains at Chhatrasal Stadium, got double digit scores in all his three bouts, winning two of them by technical superiority.

He is the first Indian male wrestler to secure a berth for the Paris Games, saving the country from embarrassment of no qualification in the men’s section.

Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Ravi Dahiya also competes in 57kg and if the WFI holds trials Aman may have to wrestle with him to book his Paris ticket.

Also putting up an impressive show was Sujeet Kalkal, who lost his men’s 65kg semifinal 1-6 to Mongolia’s formidable Tulga Tumur-Ochir, the Asian Games champion and Asian Championship silver medallist.

Before losing, Sujeet, who competes in a category which the celebrated Bajrang Punia had made his own, expectedly put up a fighting show. He won 3-2 against Uzbekistan’s Umidjon Jalolov, following that up with a technical superiority victory against South Korea’s Junsik Yun. He now needs to win two bouts tomorrow to qualify for the Paris Games.

Punia (86kg), who had missed a bronze medal at the Tokyo Games by a whisker, bumped into a very powerful Zushen Lin from China in his first bout and ended up losing 4-6 despite taking the lead.

Punia, the most experienced wrestler in the Indian squad, was quick with his attack in the first period, which he ended with a 3-0 cushion. However, the Chinese turned the tables on the Indian, beginning with a double-leg attack which he converted into a takedown move for two points. He rolled Punia to make it 4-3.

Running out of time, Punia was quick with his moves and looked for a two-pointer near the edge of the circle but the referee awarded a push-out point. The Chinese was still ahead on criteria. He ended Punia hopes with another takedown. The Chinese later lost his quarterfinal, closing the repechage route for the Indian.

In the 74kg class, Jaideep Ahlawat pulled off a stunning four-pointer double-leg attack after trailing 1-3 to win 5-3 against Moldova’s Vasile Diacon and move into the pre-quarterfinals. He also won his next bout by technical superiority against Austria’s Simon Marchl but lost his quarterfinal 0-3 to Slovakia’s Taimuraz Salkazanov. He remains in contention though. If the Slovakian reaches the final, Jaideep will get a chance via the repechage route. Deepak (97kg) and seasoned Sumit Malik (125kg) lost their first-round bouts.