ISTANBUL (Turkiye) : India ended their campaign at the World Olympic Wrestling Qualifiers with two Paris Olympics 2024 quotas, gained by wrestlers Aman Sehrawat and in men’s and women’s wrestling each.
Nisha and Aman took the number of quotas by Indian wrestlers to six. This Istanbul meet was the final chance for India to get Paris 2024 quotas for wrestling, as per Olympics.com.
On the final day of the event on Sunday, Sujeet Kalkal and Jaideep Ahlawat registered losses in their bronze medal bouts.
Sujeet, competing in the 65 kg category, secured the semifinal spot but lost to Asian Games champion Tomor-Ochiryn Tulga of Mongolia. On Sunday, he was beaten by USA’s Zain Retherford via criteria when scores were level on 2-2.
Both the finalists in each division have secured the 2024 Paris Olympics quotas for their countries. The third quota went to the victor of a playoff match between bronze medalists of a particular weight class.
Bajrang Punia, who secured the bronze medal in the men’s 65kg at the Tokyo Olympics back in 2021, was not a part of the Indian wrestling team for the qualifiers.
Jaideep Ahlawat, who made it to the repechage rounds of the 74kg after a loss in the quarter-final, suffered a narrow 2-1 defeat in the bronze medal bout against Turkiye’s Soner Demirtas. He had previously beat Turkmenistan’s Arslan Amanmyradov 11-0 during the repechage round.
A total of 14 Indian wrestlers played in the qualifiers from May 9 to 12.
Aman, secured the 57 kg Olympics 2024 quota, marking India’s first quota in the men’s freestyle category for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Ravi Kumar Dahiya, a silver medalist in the 57 kg category in the Tokyo Olympics, also failed to make it to the Indian team for the qualifiers. Deepak Punia, who secured a fifth-place finish in the 2020 Olympics, could not win a quota for his nation.
Nisha obtained the second quota for India at this event in the women’s 68 kg category, making it the fifth Paris 2024 quota by an Indian women’s wrestler.
Antim Panghal (53kg) bagged India’s first quota during the 2023 World Wrestling Championships while Vinesh Phogat (50kg), Anshu Malik (57kg) and Reetika Hooda (76kg) added to the quotas during the Asian Qualifiers held in Bishkek last month.
India, meanwhile, could not secure a quota in Greco-Roman wrestling. Sunil Kumar, who bagged a bronze medal at the Asian Games last year, was knocked out during the repechage round of the men’s 87kg division. (ANI)