India’s Aman Sehrawat, on Wednesday, won the men’s 57kg title at the 2024 Zagreb Open to start the new season in grand fashion. The 20-year-old wrestler defeated China’s Zou Wanhao 10-0 by technical superiority in the final.
Sehrawat, ranked 13th in the world, dominated the bout right from the start against the opponent ranked ten places higher than him. The Indian left no room for error for the Chinese and wrapped up the bout with a minute and eight seconds still left on the clock.
“A devastatingly strong performance from Aman over Zou,” said the commentator at the end of the bout.
Earlier in the day, Sehrawat trailed 0-4 against Muhammet Karavus of Turkey in the qualification round but turned it around to win 15-4. That remained the only points the Indian conceded in the competition as he won his quarter-final bout 11-0 against American Richard Rhodes before winning his semi-final by the same margin against Roberti Dingashvili of Georgia.
Sehrawat has long been touted as the next big prospect in Indian wrestling and is expected to pose a stiff challenge to 2020 Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Ravi Dahiya for a slot at the upcoming 2024 Paris Games.
In other matches, the experienced Deepak Punia lost his qualification round bout 2-6 to Azamat Dauletbekov of Kazakhstan in men’s 86kg. He later won his first round repechage 4-1 against Ukraine’s Valentyn Babii but lost the next bout 3-4 to Evsem Shevlidze of Georgia to exit without a medal.
Yash, the other Indian in contention, lost 0-10 by technical superiority to USA’s Quincy Miles Monday in the Round of 16 of men’s 74kg and did not get a chance via the repechage route as the American lost his very next bout.
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