Indian wrestler Aman Sehrawat lost his 57kg semifinal bout against top seed Rei Higuchi of Japan (10-0) by technical superiority on Thursday. Now he will face the winner of one of the two repechage rounds in the bronze medal round on Friday.
The 21-year-old Indian, who is seeded fifth, was no match to the Japanese wrestler, as he lost the bout in the first period.
Earlier, Aman demolished former world champion Zelimkhan Abakarov of Albania by technical superiority to seal a place in the semifinal.
He locked the Albanian wrestler's legs at the start of the second round and turned him over multiple times to earn eight straight points to secure a 12-0 victory. The bout started with Aman earning a passivity point after his Russian-turned-Albanian opponent did not initiate any attacking moves.
Moments later, the Indian effected a left-leg hold to earn two more points to showcase his dominance by going 3-0 up at the end of round 1.
Aman ensured himself a quarterfinal berth with a dominating performance against North Macedonian rival Vladimir Egorov in the opening bout. He had won the contest by technical superiority (10-0) as well.
Meanwhile, Anshu Malik's Olympic dream got over after the wrestler against whom she lost in the opening round was defeated in the semifinal. Anshu lost 2-7 to the USA's Helen Louise Maroulis.
The American grappler then lost her semifinal bout to Tsugumi Sakurai of Japan 10-4 to close the curtains on Anshu's campaign.
Had Helen won and entered the final, Anshu would have gotten a chance to stake her claim on bronze through the repechage round.
Anshu lost to Helen in the 2021 World Championships final, settling for a silver medal.